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lATTLE  OF  HARLEM  PLAINS 


LIBRARY/ 

OF   THE  ^/i/ 

YOUNG     MEN'S 

Christian  Association 


CITY    OF    NEW    YORK. 


2 


£#7£~f 


COMMEMORATION 


BATTLE    OF    HARLEM     PLAINS 

J 


ONE    HUNDREDTH    ANNIVERSARY 


BY   THE 


NEW   YORK    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY. 


NEW     YORK: 
PUBLISHED    BY    THE     SOCIETY 

M  DCCC  LXXVI. 


New-York    Historical   Society. 


CELEBRATION  OF  THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLEM  PLAINS 


One  Hundredth  Anniversary.  Sept.  i6,  1876. 

The  expenses  of  this  Celebration  were  defrayed  by  the  following  gentlemen  in  subscriptions 
of  Twenty-five  Dollars  each. 


Joseph  W.  Alsop, 
John  T.  Agnew, 
Benjamin  G.  Arnold, 
James  W.  Beekman, 
Erastus  C.  Benedict, 
David  Wolfe  Bishop, 
August  Belmont, 
Samuel  L.  M.  Barlow, 
John  C.  Barron, 
William  Cullen  Bryant, 
Clarkson  Crolius, 
Mathew  Clarkson, 
B.  F.  Carver, 
Addison  Carmack, 
Frederic  de  Peyster, 
J.  Watts  de  Peyster, 
Evert  A.  Duyckinck, 
John  A.  Dix, 
Henry  Drisler, 
Edward  F.  de  Lancey, 
William  M.  Evarts. 
George  Ehret, 
Benjamin  H.  Field, 
Courtland  de  P.  Field, 
John  Fitch, 
Moses  H.  Grinnell, 
F.  Frederic  Gunther, 
John  W.  Hamersley, 
Wilson  G.  Hunt, 
A.  Hupfel  Sons, 


John  Hunter, 
Adrian  Iselin, 
George  Jones, 
John  J.  Jones, 
William  L.  Jenkins, 
William  Jay, 
John  D.  Jones, 
Morris  K.  Jesup, 
David  Jones, 
Robert  Lenox  Kennedy 
A.  Gracie  King, 
A.  C.  Kingsland, 
Robert  E.  Livingston, 
William  Libbey, 
James  Lenox, 
A.  A.  Low, 
John  McKesson, 
George  H.  Moore, 
James  M.  McLean, 
Fordham  Morris, 
Richard  E.  Mount, 
Henry  A.  Oakley, 
Charles  O' Conor, 
Samuel  Osgood, 
Willard  Parker, 
Frederic  Prime, 
George  T.  Plume, 
Royal  Phelps, 
William  C.  Prime, 
S.  Whitney  Phoenix, 
Robert  Ray, 


Charles  Roome, 
William  Remsen, 
Lewis  M.  Rutherfurd, 
Jacob  Ruppert, 
Theodore  Roosevelt, 
Augustus  Schell, 
Charles  W.  Sanford, 
James  Struthers, 
Benjamin  B.  Sherman, 
,  Rutherfurd  Stuyvesant, 
Robert  L.  Stuart, 
John  Austin  Stevens, 
Benjamin  D.  Silliman, 
Henry  F.  Spaulding, 
Philip  Schuyler, 
James  H.  Titus, 
William  R.  Travers, 
Charles  L.  Tiffany, 
William  M.  Vermilye, 
Washington  R.  Vermilye, 
Jacob  D.  Vermilye, 
E.  W.  Vanderhoof, 
Stephen  C.  Williams, 
John  A.  Weeks, 
Henry  R.  Winthrop, 
Andrew  Warner, 
William  H.  Wickham, 
J.  Butler  Wright, 
William  H.  Webb, 
Frank  Work, 


M163222 


THE  BATTLE  OF  HARLEM  PLAINS 


O  RAT  I  O  N 


BEFORE  THE 


NEW     YORK     HISTORICAL     SOCIETY 


September    16,    1876 


BY 


JOHN     JAY 


NEW  YORK: 
PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SOCIETY. 

M  DCCC  LXXVI. 


COMMEMORATIVE    ORATION. 


Mr.  President,  Fellow-Countrymen,  Ladies  and  Gen- 
tlemen : 

Our  Centennial  year,  fraught  with  cherished  memories,  has 
brought  us  to  the  anniversary  of  the  spirited  engagements 
which  took  place  on  the  heights  and  plains  around  us  an  hun- 
dred years  ago,  between  some  of  the  Continental  troops  under 
the  command  of  Washington,  and  a  part  of  the  British  army 
under  Sir  William  Howe.  The  action  for  the  American  army 
and  the  American  cause  had  a  great  significance.  Our  troops 
engaged  in  it  represented  all  sections — Virginia,  Maryland, 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  New  England — indicating  the 
common  ties  that  have  bound  us  in  a  common  destiny,  and 
recalling  the  generous  thought  of  Patrick  Henry,  when  he 
said,  "  I  am  not  a  Virginian — I  am  an  American." 

It  was  the  first  success  of  the  Americans  in  the  New  York 
campaign,  and  it  occurred  at  a  moment  when  both  officers 
and  men  were  discouraged  by  disaster  and  retreat,  and  mor- 
tified and  alarmed  at  an  exhibition  of  panic  the  day  before, 
which  had  wounded  their  self-respect,  and  impaired  their 
courage  and  their  hopes. 

It  developed  the  bravery  and  spirit  of  our  newly  levied 
troops,  and  their  ability,  when  fairly  led,  to  meet  in  the  open 
field  the  flower  of  the  English  army  and  the  trained  veterans 
of  the  Continent.  It  inspired  with  new  ardor  the  Commander- 
in-chief,  his  officers  and  men,  and  it  thus  became  an  important 
link  in  that  chain  of  events,  military  and  civil,  which,  by  the 
wisdom  of  Washington  and  the  help  of  God,  established,  after 
a  seven  years'  struggle,  our  Union  and  our  Independence. 
The  New  York  Historical  Society,  which  is  faithfully  prose- 
cuting the  work  on  which  it  entered  seventy-two  years  ago, 
under  the  presidency  of  Egbert  Benson,  whom  some  of  us  well 
remember,  of  rescuing  from  forgetfulness  and  decay  the  fleet- 


8  Commemorative    Oration* 

ing  reminiscences  of  our  historic  times,  has  brought  us  to-day 
to  this  pleasant  spot  where  the  fast  advancing  city  has  but 
partially  changed  the  natural  features  so  bold  and  picturesque 
which  marked  it  a  century  ago  ;  on  those  Heights  the  army 
of  Washington  was  encamped,  and  here  you  look  upon  the 
field  of  battle.  The  occasion  is  fitly  graced  by  this  brilliant 
assemblage,  including  our  distinguished  and  welcome  guests, 
and  by.  our  gallant  Seventh  Regiment,  of  which  New  York 
is  justly  proud — that  school  of  soldiers  which  in  our  late  war 
furnished  more  than  six  hundred  officers  to  the  army  and 
navy  of  the  United  States. 

When  I  ventured  to  accept  the  duty  with  which  I  have 
been  honored,  of  addressing  you  on  this  occasion,  I  recalled 
the  touching  words  of  Lincoln  at  Gettysburg,  when,  alluding 
to  the  brave  men  by  whom  that  great  battle  had  been  won, 
he  said,  "  The  world  will  little  note  nor  long  remember  what 
we  say  here  ;  but  it  can  never  forget  what  they  did  here."  I 
felt  that  the  sacred  memories  invoked  by  the  scene  would 
appeal  to  your  imaginations  and  your  hearts  with  an  elo- 
quence of  their  own,  and  that  you  would  kindly  accept  some 
thoughts  suggested  by  the  day  and  a  simple  narrative  of  the 
battle. 

Practical  as  may  be  the  character,  active  as  is  the  life  of  our 
countrymen,  theirs  is  not  the  frigid  philosophy  denounced  by 
the  English  moralist  which  might  conduct  one  unmoved  over 
ground  consecrated  by  wisdom,  bravery,  and  virtue.  If,  as 
Dr.  Johnson  observed,  that  man  is  little  to  be  envied  whose 
patriotism  would  not  gain  force  upon  the  plains  of  Marathon, 
or  whose  piety  would  not  burn  brighter  amid  the  ruins  of 
Iona  :  the  American,  could  he  be  found,  would  be  still  less 
to  be  envied,  whose  patriotism  at  this  Centennial  season  would 
not  be  refreshed  on  the  battle-fields  of  the  Revolution,  where 
our  independence  was  won  under  the  lead  of  Washington. 

If  Marathon  and  Iona  inspire  touching  memories  of  a  dead 
past,  our  revolutionary  scenes,  whilst  they  also  remind  us 
of  ages  that  are  gone,  are  linked  with  a  living  present,  and 
an  impending  and  limitless  future. 

In  America,  too,  each  citizen  shares  the  sovereignty  of  the 


Commemorative    Oration.  g 

people,  to  whose  wisdom  and  virtue  are  committed  from 
generation  to  generation  the  character  and  destiny  of  the 
Republic  ;  and  this  thought  enhances  the  personal  interest  of 
each  in  the  past  of  the  country  whose  great  future  we  are 
moulding  and  carving  and  determining  to-day. 

It  has  been  said  that  those  will  not  look  forward  to  pos- 
terity who  do  not  look  back  to  their  ancestors.  We  are 
accustomed  as  a  nation  to  do  the  one  and  the  other,  and  the 
habit  strengthens  as  we  advance.  No  story  was  more  fasci- 
nating to  our  childhood  than  that  of  America — itsydiscovery 
by  Columbus,  the  adventurous  navigators  who  followed  in 
his  steps,  its  settlement  by  colonists  from  every  part  of 
Europe  with  their  varied  languages,  characteristics,  and 
traditions,  bringing  with  them  the  promise  and  the  power  of 
that  magnificent  age  of  European  advancement,  of  which 
there  has  recently  been  given  us,  with  unrivalled  skill,  so 
striking  a  picture. 

We  trace  the  rough  progress  of  the  colonists  in  their  battles 
with  the  wilderness,  with  the  Indians,  and  with  each  other, 
up  to  the  heroic  story  of  our  Revolution,  which  still  grows  in 
interest  as  we  read  it  anew  in  the  thoughtful  and  brilliant 
page  of  Bancroft. 

Our  interest  was  attended  by  the  thought  that  the  Republic 
which  had  grown  from  those  long  processions  across  the  sea, 
and  nearly  two  centuries  of  preparation,  was,  as  Burke 
declared,  a  new  power,  which,  in  its  relations  to  the  rest  of 
the  world,  might  be  compared  to  a  new  planet  with  its  dis- 
turbing influences  suddenly  appearing  in  the  solar  system. 

The  prediction  in  other  lands  that  the  Republic  might 
prove  rather  an  erratic  comet  that  would  vanish  in  space, 
or  a  baneful  meteor,  whose  brief  splendor  would  expire 
in  darkness,  was  thought  in  Europe  likely  to  be  accomplished 
by  the  recent  convulsion  that  threatened  to  terminate  our 
national  career.  The  result  of  that  contest  has  crowned  the 
accomplishments  of  our  first  century  with  the  conviction,  that 
neither  foreign  power  nor  internal  strife  can  reach  the  life  of 
the  Republic;  but  that  it  contains  within  itself  moral  elements 
of  stability  and  permanence  which  were  utterly  discredited 


io  Commemorative    Oration. 

by  other  nations,  and  were  but  partially  appreciated  among 
ourselves. 

In  this  view  our  Centennial  commemoration  becomes  more 
than  a  sentimental  expression  ;  it  marks  the  entering  of  the 
Republic  upon  a  new  epoch,  no  longer  as  a  doubtful  experi- 
ment, but  as  a  fixed  fact — a  power  of  continental  boundaries, 
of  limitless  resources,  of  unmeasured  energy,  of  schools  and 
churches,  and  universal  freedom,  more  closely  united  than 
ever  before  on  a  basis  of  equal  rights  and  mutual  interests, 
and  with  no  lingering  element  of  sectional  discord  to  again 
disturb  its  harmony. 

Other  anticipations,  where  the  wish  was  father  to  the 
thought,  were  indulged  in  across  the  water  by  those  who 
hastened  to  announce  our  national  dissolution,  and  to  hail  it 
asa"  blessing  and  a  boon."  They  dreamed  that  the  Ameri- 
can Union  was  broken,  that  "  the  bubble  of  democracy  was 
burst,"  and  that  it  would  devolve  on  the  European  powers 
whom  we  had  dismissed  from  our  territories  to  re-enter  them 
once  more,  to  save  the  remnants  from  destruction.  France 
wrote,  an  officer  of  the  old  empire  would  retake  the  ter- 
ritory of  Orleans  ;  England  might  appropriate  Oregon,  the 
State  of  Maine,  and  the  harbor  of  Portland  ;  Mexico,  under 
foreign  protection,  would  reclaim  New  Mexico,  Texas,  and 
California  ;  while  an  Austrian  prince  from  the  throne  of  the 
Montezumas  would  look  upon  the  distribution  of  the  effects 
of  the  defunct  Republic,  and  lend  his  imperial  countenance  to 
the  system  of  perpetual  slavery  that  was  expected  to  flourish 
amid  its  ruins. 

The  heart  of  the  nation  may  well  beat  high  with  joy  and 
thankfulness,  as  our  Centennial  sees  the  gathering  of  the  na- 
tions at  Philadelphia,  not  to  sing  our  requiem  and  divide 
our  heritage,  but  bringing  their  congratulations  and  their 
treasures  to  lend  magnificence  to  the  birth-year  of  the  re- 
public. 

Having  dismissed  to  their  homes  her  army  of  a  million, 
and  retained  for  the  protection  of  the  Republic  some  25,000 
men,  less  than  the  garrison  of  an  European  capital,  she  cor- 
dially greets  in  friendly  rivalry  her  welcome  guests  in  a  way 


Commemorative    Oration.  1 1 

to  assure  them  that  if  "  Westward  the  Star  of  Empire  takes 
its  way,"  our  Star  of  Empire  is  the  harbinger  of  peace. 

Our  Centennial  is  teaching  us  the  unity  of  history  by  the 
most  striking  of  lessons,  as  Egypt  leads  the  throng,  mother  of 
civilization,  with  her  untold  ages  of  hoar  antiquity — the  land 
of  the  Pharaohs  and  the  Pyramids  ;  of  the  Nile  and  of  the 
Sphinx,  with  scriptural  memories  of  Abram  and  Sarah,  of 
Joseph  and  his  brethren,  when  the  great  pyramid  had  been 
standing  some  2,000  years  ;  of  the  second  Joseph,  the  mother 
and  the  Child,  recalling  Memphis  and  Thebes,  Rameses  and 
Cambyses,  with  dim  thoughts  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  and  Baby- 
lon, as  shadowed  forth  by  Ezekiel  and  Jeremiah.  Egypt, 
which  in  her  remote  origin  was  a  sphinx  to  the  ancient  Greeks, 
brings  from  the  East  with  oriental  courtesy  her  greeting  and 
her  gifts.  She  salutes  us  as  of  old  the  statue  of  Memnon 
greeted  the  rising  sun  ;  and  as  we  read  the  message  written 
on  her  pcrtals  at  Fairmount,  "  The  oldest  people  sends  her 
morning  greeting  to  the  youngest  nation,"  we  feel  that  our 
youthful  Republic,  child  of  the  brightest  centuries  of  Euro- 
pean development,  is  akin  to  all  the  nations  and  heir  to  the 
culture  of  all  the  ages. 

There  is  one  pleasant  thought  connected  with  the  Centen- 
nial,— pleasant  in  every  aspect  and  in  its  significance  to  the 
world  at  large,  of  which  we  are  naturally  reminded  as  we 
recall  the  battle  here  fought  between  England  and  America, 
■ — the  thought  that  the  Revolution  which  severed  our  political 
connection  with  the  British  crown,  has  enlarged  our  relations 
and  confirmed  our  friendship  with  the  British  people. 

Nothing  could  have  so  crowned  our  majestic  celebration, 
ordained  by  Congress  and  proclaimed  by  the  President — the 
nation  commemorating  its  founders  and  the  world  assisting  at 
the  fete — as  the  magnanimity,  worthy  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race,  and  which  America  will  not  soon  forget,  with  which 
England  deputed  her  accomplished  and  honored  Envoy  at 
Washington  to  represent  the  British  Empire  at  the  ceremonies 
in  honor  of  the  birth-year  of  the  Republic. 

Wars  that  are  provoked  by  passion  or  ambition  may 
produce  new  storms  of  international  hate,  to  desolate  in  turn 


12  Commemorative    Oration. 

successive  generations  ;  but  with  wars  that  result  from#  the 
antagonism  of  principles  and  systems,  after  the  lightning  and 
the  crash  may  come  the  clear  sky,  while  nature  smiles  with 
freshened  verdure,  teaching  us  that  in  the  Divine  Economy 
it  is  often  the  conflict  of  discordant  powers  that  produces 
the  harmony  of  the  universe. 

Touching  the  dispute  between  England  and  her  colonies, 
which  Englishmen  and  Americans  can  now  discuss  with  calm 
philosophy,  there  is  one  fact  creditable  alike  to  both  parties 
and  essential  to  a  correct  appreciation  of  the  position,  which 
has  been  curiously  ignored,  even  in  recent  discussions  of  the 
question  on  both  sides  the  Atlantic.  The  impression  still 
obtains  in  various  quarters,  that  for  many  years  previous  to 
the  Revolution  a  desire  for  independence  had  been  growing 
in  the  Colonies,  and  that  when  the  struggle  was  entered  upon 
the  American  leaders  aimed  at  a  separation.  Jefferson  on  the 
contrary  declared  : 

"It  is  well  known  that  in  July,  1775,  a  separation  from 
Great  Britain  and  establishment  of  republican  government 
had  never  yet  entered  into  any  person's  mind."  The  accur- 
acy of  that  statement  was  in  accord  with  the  assurance  given 
by  Franklin  in  August,  1774,  to  Lord  Chatham,  that  he 
"  never  had  heard  in  any  conversation  from  any  person,  drunk 
or  sober,  the  least  expression  of  a  wish  for  separation,"  and 
it  was  distinctly  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  John  Adams, 
who  added,  his  sturdy  patriotism  giving  significance  to  the  re- 
mark :  "  For  my  own  part,  there  was  not  a  moment  during  the 
Revolution  when  I  would  not  have  given  everything  I  possessed, 
for  a  restoration  to  the  state  of  things  before  the  contest  be- 
gan, provided  we  could  have  had  sufficient  security  for  its 
continuance."  The  character  of  the  ties  that  attached  the 
Colonies  to  England  was  too  little  appreciated  at  the  Court  of 
St.  James  ;  and  Lord  Russell,  in  his  Life  of  Charles  James 
Fox,  remarked  that  "  it  was  the  peculiar  infelicity  of  George 
the  III.  and  Lord  North,  that  they  turned  to  gall  all  those 
feelings  of  filial  piety  which  had  so  long  filled  the  breasts  of 
Americans." 

The  principles  on  which  our  fathers  resisted  the  powers 


Commemorative    Oratioii.  13 

assumed  by  Great  Britain,  are  still  occasionally  criticised  in 
that  country,  but  it  can  never  be  forgotten  that  the  State 
papers  developing  their  views  commanded  the  approval,  even 
the  homage  of  the  great  Lord  Chatham. 

With  the  impressive  diction  that  marked  his  transcendent 
oratory,  he  said  in  words  that  can  bear  to  be  repeated,  but 
not  to  be  abridged  : 

"  For  myself,  I  must  declare  and  avow  that  in  all  my  read- 
ing and  observation,  and  it  has  been  my  favorite  study — I 
have  read  Thucydides,  and  have  studied  and  admired  the 
master  states  of  the  world — for  solidity  of  reasoning,  force  of 
sagacity,  and  wisdom  of  conclusion  under  such  a  complication 
of  difficult  circumstances,  no  nation  or  body  of  men  can  stand 
in  preference  to  the  General  Congress  at'  Philadelphia." 

That  Chatham,  who  as  William  Pitt  had  been  the  great 
Commoner  of  England,  the  expounder  of  the  popular  features 
of  the  British  Constitution,  the  most  powerful  orator  of 
modern  times,  whose  "  character  had  astonished  a  corrupt 
age,"  found  the  statesmanship  of  the  Continental  Congress 
to  surpass  that  of  the  master  states  of  ancient  and  of  modern 
times,  is  a  noteworthy  incident,  as  we  review  after  the  lapse 
of  a  century,  the  full  development  of  that  political  capacity 
whose  early  exhibition  at  Philadelphia  called  forth  that  gener- 
ous tribute  from  the  foremost  statesman  of  Great  Britain. 

Turning  a  deaf  ear  to  the  advice  and  warnings  of  Chatham 
and  of  Burke,  who  stood  on  the  American  question  like 
"  guide-posts  and  land-marks  in  the  state,"  the  ministry 
adhered  to  the  principle  of  the  act,  which  said — what  an  his- 
toric lesson  it  teaches  to-day — "  It  is  expedient  to  raise  a 
revenue  in  America." 

On  the  soundness  of  that  proposition  the  ministry  deliber- 
ately staked  the  dignity  of  the  Crown  and  the  integrity  of 
the  Kingdom. 

Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  "  Taxation  no  Tyranny,"  ignoring  the 
principles  and  the  characteristics  of  the  American  Colonists,  and 
the  fact  that  their  ancestors  in  every  country  of  Europe  had 
been  accustomed  to  resist  oppression,  anticipated  as  the 
result  of  the  struggle,  "  English  superiority  and    American 


14  Commemorative    Oration. 

obedience,"  nor  dreamed  that  he  was  assisting  in  the  dismem- 
berment of  the  British  Empire  and  the  erection  of  an 
American  Republic. 

Never  was  a  ministry  trifling  with  the  interests  and  honor 
of  a  great  nation  more  frankly  and  fearlessly  warned,  and  the 
speeches  of  Chatham  on  the  American  question  show  the 
difference  between  the  true  statesman,  maintaining  the  truth 
with  outspoken  independence  against  an  obstinate  king,  a 
convenient  ministry,  and  a  subservient  parliament ;  and  supple 
courtiers  who  bend  the  knee  where  thrift  may  follow  fawning, 
and  sustain  with  unquestioning  acquiescence  governmental 
policies  that  assail  the  morality  and  the  dignity  of  the  nation. 

"  My  Lords,"  said  Chatham,  and  his  words  may  be  repeated 
from  age  to  age  in  every  country,  "  this  ruinous  and  igno- 
minious situation,  where  we  cannot  act  with  success  nor  suffer 
with  honor,  calls  upon  us  to  remonstrate  in  the  strongest 
language,  to  rescue  the  ear  of  majesty  from  the  delusions 
which  surround  it." 

When,  after  the  rejection  of  their  second  petition,  Congress 
resolved  upon  the  necessity  of  separation,  and  declared  the 
inalienable  rights  which  formed  the  basis  of  its  action,  the 
great  truths  which  it  announced,  if  thought  strange  and  novel 
in  Europe,  had  little  of  novelty  in  America.  They  were  here 
regarded  not  as  something  newly  discovered,  but  old  as  the 
creation,  written  in  the  Bible,  uttered  by  others  than 
Christian  philosophers  from  Aristotle  to  Locke, — truths  which 
had  descended  from  their  ancestors  among  the  Hollanders,  the 
Walloons,  the  French  Huguenots,  the  English,  the  Irish  and 
the  Scotch,  the  Swedes,  the  Germans,  and  the  Swiss,  the 
Bohemian  Protestants,  the  Italian  Waldenses,  the  Salzburg 
exiles,  the  Moravian  Brothers,  and  refugees  from  the  Palati- 
nate, Alsace,  and  Southern  Germany. 

They  were  rights  that  had  been  asserted  and  battled  for  in 
England  by  those  who  believed  in  the  enjoyment  of  personal 
and  religious  freedom :  which  had  animated  the  great  charter 
wrested  from  John  :  which  had  inspired  the  Petition  of  Right : 
which  had  been  reduced  to  practice  in  the  English  Revolution  : 
which  were  the  proper  heritage  of  the  colonists  from  their 


Commemorative    Oration.  1 5 

earnest,  freedom-loving,  stout-hearted  sires  :  truths  self-evi- 
dent,  "  the  unassuming  commonplace  of  nature." 

When  at  our  centennial  commemoration  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  at  Philadelphia,  ordained  by  Congress  to  be 
held  under  the  auspices  of  the  Government,  and  assisted  in 
by  the  Powers  invited  by  the  President,  with  the  illustrious 
Emperor  of  Brazil  and  a  royal  prince  of  Sweden,  presenting 
a  scene  unique  in  its  political  significance  and  its  historic 
associations,  our  acting  Vice-President,  Mr.  Ferry,  remarking 
that  the  regretful  absence  of  the  President  had  o&st  upon 
him  the  honor  of  presiding  on  that  eventful  occasion,  said 
that  the  heroic  statesmen  who  had  there  chosen  between 
royal  rule  and  popular  sovereignty  had  been  inspired,  in  their 
declaration  that  all  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  by  the  truth 
uttered  on  Mars  Hill  that  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all 
nations  of  men.  The  religious  sentiment  thus  alluded  to  by 
the  Vice-President  has  been  recognized  by  the  most  philo- 
sophic writers  in  America,  as  having  lain  at  the  root  of  the 
governmental  theories  as  well  as  of  the  social  characteristics 
of  the  colonists.  Burke,  in  the  greatest  of  his  speeches  on 
America — that  on  conciliation — referred  to  the  stream  of 
foreigners  which  had  flowed  into  the  colonies  as  being  for  the 
greatest  part  composed  of  dissenters  from  the  establishments 
of  their  respective  countries;  and  soon  after  that  speech,  and 
a  week  before  Congress  was  driven  from  Philadelphia,  that 
body  ordered  an  importation  of  twenty  thousand  Bibles  for 
its  constituents,  at  the  public  expense. 

An  interesting  example  of  the  recognition  of  the  divine 
rights  of  people,  by  the  government  of  Holland,  the  parent 
state  of  this  part  of  our  country,  and  of  whom  we  are 
reminded  by  these  Harlem  plains,  is  found  in  the  reply  of  the 
States  General  to  the  request  of  Great  Britain  for  troops  to 
assist  in  the  subjugation  of  the  rebellious  Americans. 

It  was  in  December,  1775,  that  Derk  VAN  DER  CAPPEL — 
may  his  name  be  cherished — declared,  in  answer  to  the 
British  demand  for  troops,  that  "the  Americans  were  worthy 
of  every  man's  esteem — a  brave  people,  defending  in  a 
manly  and  religious  manner  those  rights  which,  as  men,  they 


1 6  Commemorative    Oration. 

derive  from   God,  and   not   from   the   Legislature  of  Great 
Britain." 

It  was  the  fine  thought  of  Bryant  in  his  Ode  to  Freedom — 

Thy  birthright  was  not  given  by  human  hands  ; 
Thou  wert  twin-born  with  man. 

But  we  may  not  linger  on  the  civil  questions  involved  in 
our  Declaration  which  have  already  been  treated  in  our  recent 
centennial  orations  with  so  much  of  learning,  eloquence,  and 
deep  philosophy,  by  statesmen,  jurists,  diplomatists,  and 
divines. 

The  military  question  to  which  this  battle  scene  recalls  us 
was,  in  fact,  the  question  on  which  our  success  in  the  war 
immediately  depended  ;  for  that  success  hung  not  alone  on 
the  soundness  of  our  political  theories,  but  on  our  ability  to 
defeat  the  armies  and  fleets  of  Great  Britain,  then  in  the 
height  of  her  pride  and  the  most  powerful  government  in  the 
world. 

We  began  the  struggle  with  no  certainty  of  any  foreign  aid, 
and  so  unequal  seemed  the  contest  that  Vergennes,  the  Min- 
ister of  Louis  XVI.,  assured  our  envoys  that  it  would  not  be 
safe  for  France  and  America  together  to  attempt  to  match 
England,  unless  they  were  assisted  by  other  powers.  This 
inequality  must  be  remembered  if  we  would  appreciate  aright 
the  importance  of  the  battle  fought  on  this  spot  an  hundred 
years  ago.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  but  just 
adopted,  closing  the  door  to  conciliation  and  compromise, 
had  alienated  our  friends  in  England.  France  had  not  yet 
become  our  ally.  There  had  not  yet  come  to  us  the  gallant 
and  generous  Lafayette,  of  whom  Washington  wrote:  "  Treat 
him  as  though  he  were  my  own  son."  We  had  not  yet  wel- 
comed to  our  camp  and  to  our  hearts  Kosciusko,  whose 
soldierly  fame  lives  alike  in  Europe  and  America  ;  nor  Steu- 
ben, who  had  learned  the  art  of  war  under  the  great  Frede- 
rick ;  nor  De  Kalb,  who  had  served  with  the  French  and 
who  fell  at  Camden  with  eleven  wounds  ;  nor  Rochambeau, 
with  his  brave  command  of  six  thousand  men,  who  was  made 
Marshal  of  France  for  his  services  at  Yorktown,  and  who 


Commemorative    Oration.  17 

brought  in  his  gallant  train  such  men  as  D'Estaing,  Du  Por- 
tail,  De  Choise,  Deuxponts,  Custine,  De  Noailles,  Montmo- 
renci,  De  Grasse,  Lauzun,  St.  Simon,  De  Broglie,  Berthier, 
Segur,  and  Montesquieu. 

The  1st  of  January,  1776,  opened  gloomily,  with  the  defeat 
at  Quebec  and  the  death  of  the  brave  Montgomery.  In 
March,  the  British  had  evacuated  Boston.  In  April,  Wash- 
ington had  arrived  in  New  York.  On  the  2d  of  July,  Con- 
gress had  resolved  on  separation,  and  on  the  9th  the  New 
York  Convention  at  White  Plains  had  given,  as  Sparks  happily 
said,  the  finishing  stroke  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
which  that  evening  was  read  at  the  head  of  each  brigade 
of  the  army,  and  the  same  night  the  leaden  statue  of  George 
III.  in  the  Bowling  Green  was  broken  up  and  run  into  bullets. 
Presently  arrived  in  the  Hudson  two  British  ships,  and  a 
third  with  the  Admiral's  flag  of  Lord  Howe.  Soon  the  High- 
landers, Hessians  and  other  troops  began  to  be  landed  at 
Staten  Island.  The  British  force  near  New  York  amounted  to 
30,000  men.  That  of  the  Americans  was  less  than  20,000, 
imperfectly  equipped  and  armed,  composed  in  part  of"  hasty 
levies  of  countrymen."  The  yeomen  summoned  from  the 
plough,  and  destitute  of  arms,  were  ordered  to  bring  with 
them  a  shovel,  spade,  or  pickaxe,  or  a  scythe  straightened  and 
fastened  to  a  pole. 

On  the  27th  of  August  was  fought  the  disastrous  battle  of 
Long  Island.  Two  nights  afterwards,  on  the  29th,  was 
effected  the  masterly  retreat  of  Washington  from  Brooklyn  to 
New  York,  one  of  the  most  signal  achievements  of  the  war, 
and  perhaps  unsurpassed  in  military  history,  by  which  "  9,000 
men  with  their  munitions  of  war,  were  successfully  withdrawn 
from  before  a  victorious  enemy,  encamped  so  near  that  every 
stroke  of  spade  and  pickaxe  from  their  trenches  could  be 
heard." 

On  the  2d  of  September,  Washington  wrote  to  Congress 
that  the  situation  was  truly  distressing  ;  that  the  check  on  the 
27th  had  filled  the  troops  with  apprehension  and  despair  ;  that 
they  were  dismayed,  intractable,  and  impatient  to  return  ;  and 
that  great  numbers  had  gone  off,  "  in  some  instances  almost 


1 8  Commemorative    Oration. 

by  whole  regiments,  by  half  ones,  and  by  companies  at  a 
time." 

A  council  of  general  officers  had  decided  with  regret  that  it 
would  be  necessary  to  evacuate  New  York,  which  Washington 
said  had  become  the  grand  magazine  of  America.  Put- 
nam was  stationed  in  the  city  with  only  5,000  men,  while 
General  Heath  with  9,000  men  was  to  guard  the  upper  part 
of  the  island  and  oppose  any  attempt  of  the  enemy  to  land. 
On  the  13th  of  September  three  frigates  and  a  British  man-of- 
war  sailed  up  the  East  river  towards  Hell-gate,  firing  as  they 
passed.  On  Saturday,  the  14th,  Washington's  baggage  was 
removed  to  his  new  headquarters  at  Kingsbridge.  It  was 
now  clear  that  the  enemy  were  preparing  to  encompass  our 
army  on  the  island,  and  their  landing  at  Harlem  or  Morrisania 
was  apprehended.  But  the  evening  passed  quietly,  excepting 
that  six  more  ships  had  moved  up  the  East  River. 

On  the  morning  of  Sunday,  the  15th  of  September,  three 
British  ships  of  war  were  sent  up  the  North  River  with  "  a 
most  tremendous  firing,"  as  far  as  Bloomingdale,  with  the  in- 
tention, as  appears  from  Sir  William  Howe's  report,  of  draw- 
ing the  attention  of  the  Americans  in  that  direction.  At  11 
o'clock  the  real  business  of  the  day  commenced  by  a  cannon- 
ade from  three  frigates  and  two  forty-gun  ships,  which  were 
drawn  up  in  line  in  the  East  River,  upon  the  American 
breastworks  near  Kip's  Bay.  Under  cover  of  this  fire  was 
landed  the  first  division  of  the  British  army,  consisting  of  the 
Light  Infantry,  the  British  Reserve,  the  Hessian  Grenadiers 
and  Chasseurs,  under  the  command  of  Lt.-Gen.  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  who  had  with  him  Lt.- General  Cornwallis,  Major- 
General  Vaughan,  Brigadier-General  Leslie,  and  Col.  Donop. 
"The  fire  of  the  shipping,"  wrote  Sir  Wm.  Howe  to  Lord 
Germaine,  "being  so  well  directed  and  so  incessant,  the 
enemy  could  not  remain  in  their  works,  and  the  descent  was 
made  without  the  least  opposition." 

This  statement  is  not  without  interest  as  tending  to  explain 
the  panic  which  seized  the  militia  by  whom  the  works  were 
manned,  and  who  had  already  been  disheartened  by  the  de- 
feat at  Brooklyn,  and  perhaps  also  that  of  the  two  brigades 


Commemorative    Oration.  19 

who  had  been  sent  to  support  them,  and  who  fled  at  the  ap- 
pearance of  some  sixty  or  seventy  of  the  British  troops. 
Washington,  who  had  come  galloping  down  at  the  first  sound 
of  the  cannonade,  met  them  in  their  flight,  and  strove  in  vain 
to  rally  them.  He  is  said  to  have  been  passionately  moved 
by  their  cowardice,  which  he  reported  to  Congress  and  de- 
nounced by  general  order.  Recovering  his  self-possession, 
he  despatched  an  order  for  the  instant  occupation  of  Harlem 
Heights,  and  another  for  the  immediate  retreat  of  Putnam. 

There  is  one  incident  connected  with  Putnam's/  retreat 
which,  although  often  related,  cannot  properly  be  omitted  in 
a  centennial  mention  of  that  eventful  day. 

Sir  Wm.  Howe,  in  his  letter  of  September  21st,  to  Lord 
George  Germaine,  after  describing  the  landing  at  Kip's  Bay, 
said  :  "  The  British  immediately  took  post  on  the  command- 
ing height  of  Inclenberg  ;  "  but  Sir  William  omitted  to  advise 
his  Lordship  of  the  disposition  of  his  staff  on  their  arrival  at 
that  point,  to  which  the  American  officers  were  accustomed  to 
attribute  the  safety  of  Gen.  Putnam's  command,  the  loss  of 
which  at  that  stage  of  the  war  might  have  had  a  serious  influ- 
ence on  the  military  situation. 

On  "the  commanding  height  of  Inclenberg,"  now  known 
more  modestly  as  Murray  Hill,  resided  Robert  Murray  whose 
wife  Mary  Lindley  Murray — all  honor  to  her  memory — in 
the  absence  of  her  husband  invited  Sir  William  and  his  officers, 
as  they  approached  her  residence,  to  stop  for  lunch.  A  halt 
was  ordered  and  the  invitation  accepted.  The  unaccustomed 
heat  and  their  morning's  work  seem  to  have  prepared  the 
commander-in-chief  and  his  officers,  who  were  accompanied 
by  his  Excellency  Gov.  Try  on,  to  enjoy  the  proffered  rest 
and  repast.  In  cheerful  mood  after  their  successful  landing, 
and  refreshed  with  the  generous  wine,  they  bantered  their 
hostess  with  British  bluntness  on  her  rebel  sympathies,  and 
Mrs.  Murray  responded  with  such  graceful  tact  and  pleasant 
humor,  that  two  hours  or  more  were  whiled  away  before 
they  had  concluded  their  regale.  During  that  precious  time, 
Putnam  and  his  command,  in  their  straggling  and  disorderly 
retreat  along  the  Bloomingdale   road,  had  passed  in  safety 


20  Commemorative    Oration. 

within  a  mile  of  the  comfortable  parlors  where  the  illustrious 
generals,  who  were  to  conquer  America,  quaffed  with  appre- 
ciation the  old  Madeira,  jested  complacently  at  the  discom- 
fiture of  the  rebels,  and  unconsciously  measured  the  military 
prudence  of  the  Royal  staff  with  the  patriotic  wit  of  an  Ameri- 
can woman.  One  mile's  march  during  that  pleasant  lunch 
would  have  cut  off  Putnam's  advance  or  cut  it  in  two,  and  a 
little  later,  when  he  had  passed,  the  42d  Highlanders  moved 
towards  Bloomingdale  "  to  intercept  the  retreating  Ameri- 
cans." 

Putnam's  command,  after  a  weary  march,  joined  the  army 
in  the  evening  on  Harlem  Heights,  where  Washington  had 
made  his  headquarters  at  the  house  of  Colonel  Roger  Morris, 
at  that  time  an  adherent  of  Royal  cause,  formerly  his  com- 
panion in  Braddock's  campaign,  and  his  successful  competitor 
for  the  hand  of  Mary  Philipse.  This  house,  overlooking  the 
Harlem  River,  and  commanding  an  extensive  and  varied  view, 
is  now  known  as  the  Jumel  Place,  and  here  in  later  years 
resided  for  a  time  Col.  Aaron  Burr,  after  his  marriage  with 
Madame,  the  widow  Jumel.  About  a  mile  to  the  north  was 
the  height  of  Mount  Washington  crowned  with  an  earthwork 
mounting  thirty  cannon.  On  the  heights,  at  this  period,  com- 
menced the  intercourse  of  Washington  with  Alexander  Ham- 
ilton, a  young  captain  of  artillery,  whose  skill  in  the  construc- 
tion of  some  of  the  defences  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
commander-in-chief,  and  whose  splendid  abilities  as  exhibited 
in  the  work  of  the  National  Constitution  and  the  restoration 
of  the  national  credit  were  soon  to  command  the  attention  of 
the  world. 

The  headquarters  of  the  British  Commander  General,  Sir 
William  Howe,  were  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Apthorpe,  which 
stands  near  the  corner  of  Ninth  avenue  and  Ninety-first  street, 
and  is  now  known  as  Elm  Park.  The  encampment  of  the 
British  extended  from  the  East  River,  where  General  Howe's 
right  rested  on  Horen's  Hook  near  Eighty-ninth  street,  to  the 
North  River  where  his  left  was  at  Bloomingdale,  the  distance 
being  about  two  miles  and  both  flanks  being  covered  by  his 


Co  in  mentor ative   0 ratio  n.  21 

ships.  The  encampment  extended  from  the  fourth  to  the 
eighth  mile-stone. 

On  the  heights  occupied  by  the  Americans,  between  the 
ninth  and  tenth  mile-stones,  southwest  of  the  Roger  Morris 
House,  our  troops  were  preparing  to  form  the  lines  afterwards 
completed  between  the  Hudson  River  on  the  west  and  the 
Harlem  river  on  the  east,  over  a  broken  surface  with  breast- 
works, entrenchments  and  abatis. 

Here  it  was  intended  "  to  make  a  grand  stand."  Both 
sides  of  the  King's  Bridge  were  carefully  fortified^  making 
this  the  strongest  point.  The  division  of  the  army  lying  near 
the  Roger  Morris  House  extended  southwardly  to  near  the 
Hollow  Way  running  from  Harlem  Plain  to  the  Hudson  River 
at  the  site  of  the  present  Manhattanville,  a  natural  break  be- 
tween the  Harlem  and  the  Bloomingdale  Heights.  Between 
the  Point  of  Rocks  (the  southern  extremity  of  the  Harlem 
Heights,  now  being  cut  away,  the  property  of  the  Convent  of 
Sacred  Heart),  and  McGowan's  Pass  at  the  northern  extremity 
of  the  Central  Park,  and  lying  on  the  eastward  of  Bloomingdale 
Heights,  intervened  a  low  ground  known  as  the  Harlem  Plain. 
The  Point  of  Rocks  at  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-seventh  street 
was  the  advance  post  of  the  American  army,  and  on  the  hill 
slope  below  McGowan's  Pass,  at  One  Hundred  and  Ninth 
street,  a  mile  and  a  half  distant  was  the  advance  post  of  the 
British  army.  The  picket  lines  of  each  army  extended  be- 
yond these  points  into  the  plains  and  along  the  ridge  which 
overlooked  them.  As  night  closed  around  the  two  armies 
on  the  opposing  heights,  a  cold  driving  rain  succeeded  to 
the  sultry  heat  of  the  morning,  and  the  contrast  between  the 
thorough  equipment  of  the  British  troops  and  the  half-clad 
unsheltered  condition  of  the  Americans,  without  tents  or 
blankets,  might  have  extended  perhaps  to  the  temper  of  the 
two  armies.  The  events  of  the  day  had  tended  to  confirm 
the  impression  made  by  the  battle  of  Long  Island  ;  to  increase 
the  belief  of  the  British  in  their  resistless  superiority,  and  to 
lower  the  confidence  of  the  Americans  in  their  officers  and  in 
themselves. 

In  reporting  to  their  respective  governments  upon  the  con- 


22  Commemorative    Oration. 

duct  of  their  troops  at  Kip's  Bay  on  this  memorable  Sunday, 
Sir  William  Howe  gave  praise  for  highly  meritorious  con- 
duct to  his  officers  and  men,  while  Washington  expressed  to 
Congress  his  great  surprise  and  mortification  at  the  dastardly 
behavior  of  his  troops,  whose  cowardice  was  said  to  have 
wrung  from  him  the  exclamation,  "  Are  these  the  men  with 
whom  I  am  to  defend  America  ?  " 

Whilst  Washington  in  general  orders  denounced  instant 
death  as  the  punishment  of  cowardice  in  the  field,  he  devoted 
himself  to  the  task  of  raising  the  courage  of  the  army.  He 
perfectly  understood  that  dependence  upon  raw  militia  was 
resting  upon  a  broken  staff.  "  Men,"  he  wrote  to  the  President 
of  Congress,  "  just  dragged  from  the  tender  scenes  of  domes- 
tic life,  unaccustomed  to  the  din  of  arms,  totally  unacquainted 
with  every  kind  of  military  skill  (which  is  followed  by  want 
of  confidence  in  themselves  when  opposed  to  troops  regularly 
trained  and  appointed,  superior  in  knowledge  and  superior 
in  arms),  are  timid  and  ready  to  fly  from  their  own  shadows." 
He  had  formed  the  determination,  for  which  his  present  strong 
position  afforded  an  excellent  opportunity,  "  to  habituate  his 
soldiers  by  a  series  of  successful  skirmishes  to  meet  the 
enemy  in  the  field."  With  clear  sagacity,  as  observed  by 
Marshall,  he  had  persuaded  himself  that  his  detachments, 
knowing  that  a  strongly  entrenched  camp  was  immediately  in 
their  rear,  would  soon  display  their  native  courage  and  speed- 
ily regain  the  confidence  they  had  lost. 

On  the  morning  of  Monday  the  16th  of  September,  Wash- 
ington concluded  a  letter  to  Congress  on  the  affair  at  Kip's 
Bay,  with  the  remark,  "  I  have  sent  out  some  reconnoitring 
parties  to  gain  intelligence,  if  possible,  of  the  disposition  of 
the  enemy."  From  the  contemporaneous  authority  of  an 
officer  engaged  in  the  affair,  it  appears  that  a  scouting  party 
of  the  Regiment  of  Rangers,  a  body  of  picked  men  under  the 
command  of  Lieut.  Colonel  Thomas  Knowlton,  set  out 
before  day-break  with  instructions  to  ascertain  the  position 
of  the  enemy's  advanced  guard.  Passing  over  the  ridge 
which  we  have  described  as  the  Bloomingdale  Heights,  then 
known  as  the  Vanderwater  Heights  (they  are  so  described  in 


Commemorative    Oration.  23 

Sir  William  Howe's  despatch),  they  pushed  through  the  woods 
until,  near  the  southern  extremity  of  this  ridge,  they  came  at 
day-break  upon  a  large  party  of  the  British  light  infantry,  who 
rapidly  advanced  upon  them.  A  sharp  skirmish  ensued, 
until  Knowlton,  perceiving  that  with  their  superior  numbers 
they  were  turning  his  flank,  ordered  a  retreat.  His  men  fell 
back  in  an  orderly  manner  to  the  northernmost  end  of  the 
ridge,  where  close  by  our  advance  posts  a  second  stand  was 
made.  Meanwhile,  the  firing  had  attracted  attention,  and 
soon  after  Washington's  morning  despatches  wereysentto 
Congress,  rumors  reached  the  headquarters  of  a  movement 
by  the  enemy,  considerable  bodies  of  whom  were  showing 
themselves  at  the  lower  end  of  the  plains. 

Adjutant-General  Joseph  Reed,  as  he  himself  informs  us, 
was  sent  to  the  front  to  learn  the  truth,  and  went  down  to 
the  most  advanced  guard  picketed  on  the  plain  below  the 
Point  of  Rocks.  He  here  fell  in  with  the  party  of  Knowlton, 
who  had  been  driven  from  the  hill,  and  while  Reed  was  talk- 
ing to  the  officer  in  command  the  enemy  showed  themselves 
and  opened  fire  at  a  distance  of  fifty  yards.  The  Ameri- 
cans behaved  well,  stood  and  returned  the  fire  till  overpowered 
by  numbers  (ten  to  one  is  Reed's  estimate),  they  retreated, 
the  enemy  advancing  with  such  rapidity  that  they  were 
in  possession  of  the  house  in  which  Reed  conversed  with  the 
officer  five  minutes  after  he  left  it. 

Reed  encouraged  by  the  behavior  of  the  men  started  for 
headquarters  to  make  his  report  and  ask  for  reinforcements. 
Meanwhile  Washington  had  mounted  his  horse  and  ridden 
down  to  our  advanced  posts.  Hardly  had  Reed  reached  him 
when  the  light  infantry  showed  themselves  in  view,  and  in 
the  most  contemptuous  manner  sounded  their  bugles  as  is 
usual  after  a  fox  chase.  This  insulting  behavior  brought  a 
blush  to  the  cheeks  of  the  officers,  and  caused  their  blood  to 
tingle  with  shame.  It  showed  them  the  contempt  in  which 
they  were  held  by  their  adversaries  and  seemed  to  crown 
their  disgrace. 

On  reconnoitring  the  situation  of  the  enemy,  Washington 
saw  that  there  was  an  opportunity  for  a  successful  action  in 


24  Commemorative    Oration. 

which,  under  favorable  conditions,  the  morale  of  the  army 
could  be  restored,  and,  to  use  his  own  words,  he  formed  the 
design  of  "  cutting-  off  such  of  the  enemy's  troops  as  might 
advance  to  the  extremity  of  the  woods."  This  wood  was  on 
the  northernmost  spur  of  the  Bloomingdale  Heights,  which 
overlooked  the  hollow  way  and  was  divided  from  a  similar 
spur  opposite  at  the  Point  of  Rocks  by  a  gully  or  ravine  at 
the  foot  of  which  lay  a  round  meadow  known  in  the  topo- 
graphy of  the  day  as  Matje  (or  Mutje)  Davits  Fly. 

Washington  learning  that  the  body  of  the  enemy  who  kept 
themselves  concealed  was  about  three  hundred,  ordered  three 
companies  of  Colonel  Weedon's  regiment  from  Virginia, 
under  the  command  of  Major  Andrew  Leitch,  and  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Knowlton  with  his  Rangers,  to  try  and  get  in  their 
rear,  while  a  disposition  was  made  as  if  to  attack  them  in  front 
and  to  draw  their  attention  that  way.  Knowlton  who  was 
familiar  with  the  ground  seems  to  have  guided  his  party  by 
the  left  flank  of  the  enemy  through  the  woods  of  the  western 
slopes  of  the  Bloomingdale  Ridge  in  which  he  had  fought  in 
the  morning,  in  order  to  fall  upon  their  rear.  Leitch  with 
his  Virginians,  unacquainted  with  the  field,  was  put  under 
the  guidance  of  Adjutant-General  Reed.  It  is  worth  while 
here  to  notice  that  the  Virginia  troop,  which  was  this  day 
under  Leitch,  had  only  arrived  the  day  preceding,  having 
been  ordered  from  the  command  of  General  Mercer  in  New 
Jersey,  and  had  joined  the  camp  by  way  of  Burdett's  Ferry, 
facing  Fort  Washington.  Meanwhile  at  ten  o'clock  a  de- 
monstration or  feint  was  made  on  the  front  which  had  the 
effect  intended  by  Washington.  The  British  troops  im- 
mediately ran  down  the  hill  to  the  round  meadow  at  its  foot. 
Here,  in  the  words  of  General  Clinton,  who  was  in  the  action 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  day,  and  whose  report  to  the 
New  York  Convention  is  the  most  detailed  and  intelligible 
account  of  it,  they  were  opposed  with  spirit  and  soon  made 
to  retreat  to  a  clear  field  about  two  hundred  paces  (eight 
hundred  feet  distant),  south-east  of  the  fly  or  meadow,  where 
they  lodged  themselves  behind  a  fence  covered  with  bushes. 
This  cleared  field  we  take  to  have  been  to  the  east  and  some- 


Commemorative    Oration.  25 

what  south  of  the  point  of  the  ridge  facing  the  Point  of  Rocks. 
A  smart  firing  began  but  at  too  great  a  distance  to  do  much 
execution,  when  a  couple  of  field  pieces  being  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  British,  at  the  second  discharge  they  again  fell 
back  retreating  up  the  eastern  slope  of  the  hill.  At  this  mo- 
ment Major  Leitch  and  his  command  came  upon  the  field,  but 
misled  by  the  movements  of  the  regiment  in  action,  who  seem 
to  have  hailed  them  as  they  appeared  on  the  plain,  were 
diverted  from  the  path  by  which  Reed  intended  to  lead  them 
around  the  right  flank  of  the  British  to  their  rear,vwhere  he 
hoped  to  make  a  junction  with  Knowlton's  Rangers.  Leitch's 
command  evidently  came  from  the  lines  by  the  Kings  Bridge 
road  and  their  course  was  to  have  been  by  an  irregular  road, 
which  leaving  it  crossed  the  plain,  ran  along  the  eastern  slope 
of  the  ridge  and  passed  over  it  about  11 2th  street,  where  the 
line  of  trees  now  standing  marks  its  course,  connecting  with 
the  Bloomingdale  road  at  its  intersection  with  the  present 
Eleventh  avenue.  Reed  finding  it  impossible  to  check  their 
ardor  accompanied  them.  They  joined  the  regiment  in 
action  ;  the  feint  was  now  turned  into  an  attack.  In  a  few 
minutes,  in  the  words  of  Reed,  our  brave  fellows  mounted  up 
the  rocks,  attacked  the  enemy,  and  a  brisk  action  ensued. 
Major  Leitch  fell  presently,  after  the  close  fighting  began, 
wounded  with  three  balls.  In  a  buckwheat  field  on  the  top 
of  the  hill,  which  General  Clinton  describes  as  four  hundred 
paces — sixteen  hundred  feet  distant — (and  here  we  must 
remark  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the  accuracy  of 
these  distances,  Clinton  himself  having  surveyed  the  ground 
a  few  years  previously  to  settle  the  Harlem  boundary),  the 
British  troops  met  the  42d  Highlanders,  who,  dispatched 
at  eleven  o'clock,  had  moved  up  on  a  double  trot  without 
stopping  to  draw  breath,  to  the  support  of  the  Light  In- 
fantry, whose  distance  from  their  lines  had  caused  general 
alarm  at  Howe's  headquarters. 

The  effect  of  the  undue  and  unexpected  precipitation  on  the 
part  of  the  American  troops  ordered  to  make  the  feint,  was 
to  cause  the  attack  to  be  made  too  soon,  and  rather  in  flank 
than  in  the  rear,  thus  thwarting  the  well-arranged  plans  of 


26  Commemorative    Oration. 

Washington.  The  interference  with  his  orders  was  pointedly 
referred  to  in  the  General  Orders  of  the  next  day,  in  the  re- 
mark that  "  the  loss  of  the  enemy  yesterday  would  undoubt- 
edly have  been  much  greater  if  the  orders  of  the  Commander- 
in-Chief  had  not  in  some  instance  been  contradicted  by  some 
inferior  officers,  who,  however  well  they  might  mean,  ought 
not  to  presume  to  direct."  At  the  same  time,  the  Virgin- 
ians of  Leitch's  command  received  the  thanks  of  Washington 
for  their  gallantry. 

On  receiving  their  reinforcements,  the  British  made  their 
second  stand.  Here  it  is  probable  that  Knowlton  made  his 
appearance  on  the  British  left  flank.  In  the  buckwheat  field 
which  is  located  to  the  eastward  of  the  Bloomingdale  Asylum 
on  the  line  of  118th  street,  a  brisk  action  commenced,  which 
continued  near  two  hours.  In  this  fight,  in  which,  in  the 
words  of  General  Heath,  there  was  good  "  markmanship  on 
both  sides,"  Colonel  Knowlton  fell  about  noon.  The  officer 
of  the  Rangers,  whose  account  of  the  early  morning  skirmish 
we  have  freely  quoted,  caught  him  in  his  arms,  and  sent  him 
off  the  field  by  two  of  his  men,  and  he  was  taken  to  our  lines 
on  the  horse  of  Adjutant-General  Reed,  probably  by  the  road 
we  have  described,  which  in  fact  is  the  only  road  laid  down 
on  the  maps  of  the  period,  and  the  only  path  practicable  for 
a  horse. 

Knowlton  behaved  with  the  greatest  courage,  and  accepted 
his  fate  with  brave  composure.  "  He  seemed,"  wrote  one  of 
his  officers,  "  as  unconcerned  as  though  nothing  had  hap- 
pened to  him."  His  last  inquiry  was  as  to  the  result  of  the 
action.  Notwithstanding  the  loss  of  their  leaders,  the  men 
persevered  and  continued  the  engagement  under  the  lead  of  the 
captains,  until  Washington,  finding  that  they  needed  support, 
advanced  part  of  Colonel  Griffiths'  and  Colonel  Richardson's 
Maryland  regiments,  with  some  detatchments  from  the  eastern 
regiments  who  were  nearest  the  scene  of  action,  who  charged 
the  enemy  with  great  intrepidity.  Among  these  troops  were 
Captain  Beatty  of  the  Maryland  line,  Major  Mantz  with  three 
rifle  companies  of  the  same  troops,  Major  Price  with  three  of 
the  Independent  companies  of  Maryland  troops,  and  three 


Commemorative    Oration.  27 

other  companies  of  the  Maryland  Flying  Cavalry,  a  battalion 
of  Virginians,  and  some  southern  troops.  Thus  reinforced, 
the  Americans  pushed  on  with  fresh  vigor.  Generals  Putnam 
and  Greene,  with  Tilghman  and  other  officers  of  Washington's 
staff,  joined  in  the  engagement,  and  animated  the  soldiers  by 
their  presence.  Greene,  in  his  account  of  the  battle,  speaks 
of  the  noble  behavior  of  Putnam  and  Adjutant-General  Reed. 
The  British  also  received  a  considerable  addition  to  their  force, 
which  appears  from  the  official  report  of  Lord  Howe  to  have 
consisted  of  "  the  reserve  with  two  field  pieces,  a  battalion  of 
Hessian  grenadiers,  and  a  company  of  chasseurs,"  under  the 
command  of  Brigadier-General  Leslie.  Notwithstanding  this 
assistance  they  were  driven  from  the  buckwheat  field  into  a 
neighboring  orchard.  This  orchard  was  a  field  north  of 
the  line  of  n  6th  street,  where  the  remains  of  the  old  trees 
were  visible  until  about  the  year  1866,  when  the  land  was 
cleared.  An  ineffectual  attempt  was  made  by  the  British 
for  a  further  stand,  but  they  were  again  driven  across  a  hol- 
low and  up  a  hill  not  far  distant  from  their  own  encampment. 
This  hollow  was  undoubtedly  the  dip  of  land  between  the 
Bloomingdale  and  McGowan's  Heights,  and  the  hill  the  slope 
of  the  latter  elevation. 

Here  the  Americans  having  silenced  the  British  fire  in 
great  measure,  Washington  judged  it  prudent  to  order  a 
retreat,  fearing  that  the  enemy,  as  he  afterwards  learned  was 
really  the  case,  were  sending  a  large  body  to  support  their 
party,  which  would  have  involved  his  drawing  supports  from 
his  strong  position  on  the  Harlem  Heights,  and  have  brought 
on  a  general  engagement,  which  he  was  determined  to  avoid. 
The  war,  as  he  had  written  Congress,  must  be  a  "war  of 
posts,"  and  he  had  no  thought  of  jeoparding  the  cause  by  a 
battle  in  the  open  field — at  least,  not  till  he  had  thoroughly 
tried  the  temper  of  his  troops.  The  Von  Lansing  battalion 
was  seen  to  draw  near ;  two  other  German  battalions,  under 
Von  Donop,  occupied  M'Gowan's  Pass  ;  and  from  eight  to 
ten  thousand  men  were  under  arms,  hidden  by  the  hill  to 
which  the  enemy  were  being  driven.  The  American  troops 
obeyed  the   re-call   ordered   by  Washington,   although   the 


28  Commemorative    Oration. 

"  pursuit  of  a  flying  enemy  was  so  new  a  scene  that  it  was 
with  difficulty  our  men  could  be  brought  to  retreat,  which 
was,  however,  effected  in  very  good  order." 

The  loss  on  the  side  of  the  Americans,  as  reported  by 
General  George  Clinton,  was  seventeen  dead  and  fifty-three 
wounded.  On  the  part  of  the  British,  according  to  the  full 
circumstantial  report  of  Bauermeister,  quoted  by  Mr.  Ban- 
croft, there  were  seventy  dead  and  two  hundred  and  ten 
wounded. 

The  battle,  as  we  have  described  it,  was  chiefly  fought 
upon  the  Bloomingdale  Heights  ;  but  as  the  main  action 
commenced  on  the  plains  near  Manhattanville,  it  was  called 
by  Mr.  Lossing  the  battle  of  Harlem  Plains,  and  that  title 
has  been  adopted  in  the  subsequent  narratives  of  Mr.  Dawson 
and  other  writers.  Some  manuscript  accounts  of  the  battle 
not  hitherto  referred  to  have  thrown  light  upon  points  which 
seemed  a  little  doubtful ;  and  in  this  connection  I  gratefully 
acknowledge  my  obligations  to  Mr.  Stevens,  Mr.  Moore,  and 
Mr.  Kelby,  of  our  New  York  Historical  Society,  for  their 
kind  assistance. 

The  general  and  deep  satisfaction  at  the  events  of  the  day 
was  dimmed  by  the  sorrow  for  those  who  had  fallen  or  who 
were  suffering  from  their  wounds. 

The  movements  of  the  British  left  it  doubtful  what  they 
might  intend,  and  Washington's  order  for  the  night  of  the 
16th  indicated  careful  preparation  to  meet  a  possible  attack 
along  the  whole  line  of  heights,  commanding  the  hollow  way 
from  the  North  River  to  the  main  road  leading  from  New  York 
to  Kingsbridge.  The  parole  was  Beale,  and  the  counter- 
sign, Maryland.  Gen.  Clinton  was  to  form  next  the  North 
River,  then  Gen.  Scott's  brigade  and  Lieut.  Col.  Sayres,  of 
Col.  Griffiths'  regiment,  with  the  three  companies  intended 
for  a  re -enforcement  in  the  morning. 

Gen.  Nixon's  and  Col.  Sergeant's  division,  Col.  Weedon 
and  Maj.  Price's  regiments,  were  ordered  to  retire  to  their  quar- 
ter and  refresh  themselves,  but  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness 
to  turn  out  at  a  minute's  warning.  Gen.  McDougal  was  to 
establish  guards  against  his  brigade  upon  the  heights  from 


Commemorative    Oration,  29 

Morris's  house  to  McDougall's  camp,  to  furnish  proper  guards 
to  prevent  surprise,  not  less  than  twenty  men  from  each  regi- 
ment. Gen.  Putnam  was  placed  in  command  upon  the  right 
flank  for  the  night,  and  Gen,  Spencer  from  McDougall's 
brigade  to  Morris's  house  ;  and  should  the  enemy  attempt  to 
pass  during  the  night,  Gen.  Putnam  was  to  apply  to  Gen, 
Spencer  for  a  re-enforcement. 

The  next  day,  by  general  order,  Washington  returned  his 
most  hearty  thanks  to  "  the  troops  commanded  yesterday  by 
Major  Leitch,  who  first  advanced  upon  the  enemy^  and  the 
others  who  so  resolutely  supported  them."  He  contrasted 
their  behavior  with  that  of  some  troops  the  day  before,  as 
showing  what  might  be  done  when  officers  and  men  exert 
themselves.  Again  he  called  upon  them  to  act  up  to  the 
noble  cause  in  which  they  were  engaged,  and  to  support  the 
honor  and  liberties  of  their  country.  In  naming  the  officer 
who  was  to  take  command  of  the  party  lately  led  by  Col, 
Knowlton,  he  declared  that  the  gallant  officer  who  had  yes- 
terday fallen  while  gloriously  fighting  would  have  done  honor 
to  any  country.  The  order  concluded  with  a  rebuke  to  the 
inferior  officers,  whose  ill-advised  attention  to  unauthorized 
orders  had  interfered  with  the  orders  of  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  and  diminished  their  success. 

The  name  of  LEITCH  was  given  by  Washington  for  the 
next  day's  parole — a  grateful  tribute  to  the  wounded  officer, 
who  lingered  till  the  1st  of  October,  and  for  the  countersign, 
with  similar  significance,  was  given  "  Virginia." 

Col.  Knowlton — whose  grandson  we  cordially  welcome  on 
this  occasion — was  the  favorite  officer  of  Gen.  Putnam.  He 
had  distinguished  himself,  with  Prescott,  in  fortifying  Bun- 
ker Hill  and  in  holding  the  British  at  bay  ;  in  Trumbull's 
historic  painting  he  stands  almost  alone,  "  the  hero  of  the  rail 
fence,"  without  coat  or  hat,  grasping  his  bayonetless  musket. 
He  became  the  trusted  officer  of  Washington,  and  was  de- 
puted by  the  Commander-in-Chief  to  head  a  difficult  night 
expedition  to  Charlestown,  which  he  managed  with  entire 
success.  He  was  buried  by  order  of  Washington  within  the 
lines,  and  Leitch  was  presently  buried  by  his  side  ;  what  fitter 


30  Commemorative    Oration. 

time  than  this,  our  Centennial  anniversary,  could  a  grateful 
people  select  for  the  erection  of  a  monument  to  their 
memory  ? 

The  result  of  the  engagement  which,  commencing  as  a  skir- 
mish of  outposts,  had  assumed  at  its  close  such  large  dimen- 
sions that  from  four  to  five  thousand  troops  were  estimated  to  be 
engaged  on  either  side,  had  signally  accomplished  the  design 
of  Washington  to  recover  the  military  ardor  of  his  troops. 
It  was;  as  Irving  remarks  in  his  Life  of  Washington ,  "The 
first  gleam  of  success  in  the  campaign."  The  importance 
attributed  to  it  by  Washington  appears  from  the  accounts 
wrritten  by  him  to  the  President  of  Congress  ;  to  the  Conven- 
tion of  New  York  ;  to  Gov.  Henry,  Gov.  Trumbull,  Gen. 
Schuyler,  and  his  brothers  Lund  and  John  Augustine.  To 
Gen.  Schuyler  he  said,  "  Our  men  behaved  with  great 
bravery,  and  being  supported  by  fresh  troops,  beat  the 
enemy  fairly  from  the  field." 

General  Greene,  who  at  a  later  day,  wrote  of  this  his  first 
close  fight,  "I  fought  hard  at  Harlem,"  said,  on  the  4th 
October,  in  a  detailed  account  of  the  action:  "  Had  all  the 
Colonies  good  officers  there  is  no  danger  of  the  Troops  ; 
never  were  troops  that  would  stand  in  the  field  longer  than 
the  American  soldiery.  If  the  officers  were  as  good  as  the 
men,  and  had  only  a  few  months  to  form  the  troops  by  dis- 
cipline, America  might  bid  defiance  to  the  whole  world." 

Gen.  George  Clinton  concluded  his  narrative  of  the  battle 
to  the  New  York  Convention,  with  the  remark:  "I  con- 
sider our  success  in  this  small  affair  at  this  time  almost  equal 
to  a  victory.  It  has  animated  our  troops,  given  them  new 
spirits,  and  erased  every  bad  impression  the  retreat  from 
Long  Island,  etc.,  had  left  on  their  minds.  They  find  they 
are  able  with  inferior  numbers  to  drive  the  enemy — and 
think  of  nothing  now  but  conquest." 

This  success  following  immediately  the  unfortunate  affair 
of  Kip's  Bay — in  which,  as  was  remarked  by  Heath,  the 
officers  at  least  knew  that  the  city  was  to  be  abandoned, — 
warranted  the  opinion  which  Greene,  who  soon  became  the 
first  military  authority  in  America,  expressed  of  those  stay- 


Commemorative    Oration.  31 

ing  qualities  of  the  American  soldier,  which  in  our  day  have 
been  recognized  by  high  authorities  in  Great  Britain. 

The  late  distinguished  Col.  Charles  Chesney,  of  the  Royal 
Engineers,  in  a  review  of  the  interesting  History  of  our  Civil 
War  by  the  Comte  de  Paris,  referred  to  Malvern  Hill  as  illus- 
trating "  the  truth  which  the  world  is  slowly  realizing,  that 
the  American  soldier  is  most  formidable  when  apparently 
defeated,  and  least  subject  to  panic  when  retreating  before  a 
victorious  enemy." 

The  bugle  blast  of  the  morning  that  had  seemed  to  Reed  to 
liken  the  contest  to  a  fox  chase,  had  called  forth  a  spirit  and 
a  policy  which  resulted  in  a  double  lesson  of  confidence  to  the 
Americans  and  of  caution  to  the  British.  "They  have  ever 
since,"  wrote  George  Clinton  on  the  21st  of  September,  "been 
exceedingly  modest  and  quiet,  not  having  even  patrolling  par- 
ties beyond  their  lines."  The  British  for  a  time  showed  no 
desire  to  bring  on  the  general  engagement  the  American 
officers  had  believed  to  be  impending,  and  which  Wash- 
ington had  been  anxious  to  avoid  on  the  policy  recommended 
by  our  friends  in  Europe,  and  which  accorded  with  his  own 
conviction.  So  late  as  the  2d  of  October  an  American  party 
of  four  thousand  men  gathered  in  without  molestation  the 
hay  and  corn  in  the  Harlem  Plains  which  each  army  had 
been  watching  and  claiming  as  its  own. 

The  British  order  for  the  17th,  the  day  after  the  battle, 
while  expressing  the  highest  opinion  of  the  bravery  of  the 
troops,  who  it  remarked  had  yesterday  beaten  back  a  very 
superior  body  of  the  rebels,  and  returning  thanks  to  the 
battalion,  and  the  officers  and  men  of  the  artillery  that  came 
to  their  support,  expressed  the  disapproval  by  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  light  company  in  pursuing  the  rebels 
without  discretion,  without  support. 

No  similar  imprudence  was  committed  on  the  part  of  the 
light  infantry  during  the  period  of  nearly  four  weeks  that  the 
two  armies  remained  encamped  at  Harlem.  A  brief  mention 
of  the  engagement  is  found  in  the  Historic  Record  of  the 
Forty-second   Highlanders,  with   the   remark,   "This  being 


32  Commemorative    Oration. 

only  an  affair  of  outposts,  no  detailed  account  of  it  was  given, 
but  it  was  a  well  contested  action." 

Stedman's  History  of  the  American  War,  says,  that  "  the 
action  was  carried  on  by  reinforcements  on  both  sides  and 
became  very  warm."  It  assumed  that  the  Americans  pos- 
sessed a  great  advantage  from  the  circumstance  of  engaging 
within  half  a  mile  of  their  entrenched  camp,  where  they  could 
be  supplied  with  fresh  troops  as  often  as  the  occasion  required, 
and  that  victory  nevertheless  was  on  the  part  of  the  English, 
with  a  loss  to  the  rebels  of  three  hundred.  For  the  true 
opinion  of  the  affair  entertained  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  we  are 
indebted  to  his  own  copy  of  Stedman's  History,  in  which 
he  had  written  on  the  margin  of  the  passage  pronouncing  it  a 
victory,  "The  ungovernable  impetuosity  of  the  light  troops 
drew  us  into  this  scrape/' 

In  recalling  after  the  lapse  of  a  century  the  battle  of  Har- 
lem Plains,  and  remembering  the  subsequent  events  of  the 
war,  we  see  how  completely  those  events  confirm  his  judg- 
ment of  the  importance  of  that  day  in  restoring  to  the 
American  army  confidence  and  self-respect,  in  compelling  the 
soldierly  regard  of  their  brave  opponents,  and  in  inducing  on 
the  part  of  the  British  commander  that  caution  and  dilatory 
policy  which  accorded  with  our  plans  and  contributed  to  our 
success.  Excellent  as  was  the  material  of  the  English  army, 
Washington's  hasty  levies  were  composed  of  men  in  no  whit 
inferior,  save  in  training,  discipline,  and  equipment,  for  which 
time  and  opportunity  were  essential. 

It  is  true  that  the  army  of  Sir  William  Howe,  which  was 
pronounced  by  Lord  Chatham  "  the  best  appointed  army 
that  ever  took  the  field,"  was  composed  of  English  and  Scotch 
regiments,  whose  pluck  and  endurance  have  commanded  the 
admiration  of  the  world  from  generation  to  generation, 
as  exhibited  in  Spain,  at  Waterloo,  in  India,  and  the  Crimea. 
It  is  true  that  the  Hessian  regiments  represented  the  hardy 
and  warlike  characteristics  of  its  ancestral  tribe,  which,  as 
Bancroft  tells  us,  the  Romans  could  never  vanquish  ;  a  nation 
of  soldiers  whose  valor  had  been  proven  on  the  battle-fields 
of  Europe,  engaged  in  a  former  century  by  Venice  against 
the  Turks,  and  who  had  taken  part  in  the  siege  of  Athens. 


Commemorative    Oration.  33 

But  the  army  of  Washington  came  of  stock  equally  ac- 
customed to  war  and  hardship,  and  they  soon  commanded 
respect  no  less  for  their  courage  than  for  their  moral  traits. 
Gen.  Conway,  a  distinguished  French  officer,  said  to  Dr. 
Rush,  that  the  people  of  no  other  nation  were  so  quickly 
transformed  into  soldiers  as  those  of  the  United  States. 
"Those  men,"  said  Lord  Chatham,  in  December,  1777,  after 
the  surrender  of  Burgoyne, — "those  men  whom  you  called 
cowards,  poltroons,  runaways,  and  knaves,  are  become  vic- 
torious over  your  veteran  troops,  and  in  the  midst  ofA^ictory 
and  the  flush  of  conquest  have  set  ministers  an  example  of 
moderation  and  magnaminity  well  worthy  of  imitation." 

In  the  American  ranks  were  the  descendants  of  Hol- 
landers and  Walloons,  who,  in  the  Netherlands,  had  fought 
under  the  Prince  of  Orange  against  Philip  of  Spain  and  the 
Duke  of  Alva  ;  of  Frenchmen  who  had  served  under  Coligni 
and  Henry  of  Navarre,  whose  kinsmen  had  fallen  in  the 
Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew's  eve,  or  had  passed  through 
the  siege  of  La  Rochelle,  waiting  in  vain  for  the  assistance 
promised  by  Elizabeth  and  never  brought  by  the  Earl  of 
Leicester.  There  were  the  descendants  of  those  who  had 
fought  for  Denmark  against  Tilly  and  Wallenstein,  following 
the  banner  of  the  great  Gustavus  ;  of  the  stout  Englishmen 
who  had  battled  for  tht  Parliamentarians  at  Naseby,  and  who 
had  brought  the  King  to  the  block  at  Whitehall ;  of  the  Swiss 
who  with  pikes  in  their  hands,  and  stirred  by  the  horns  of  Uri 
and  Unterwalden,  had  defended  the  freedom  of  the  Cantons  in 
the  defiles  of  the  Alps  against  the  trained  soldiers  of  Austria  ; 
of  the  sturdy  Burgers  who  had  maintained  against  the  Duke 
of  Burgundy  the  liberties  of  Ghent  and  Liege  ;  of  the  heroes 
of  different  nationality  but  similar  vigor  who  fought  under 
Sobieski  and  saved  Vienna  from  the  Turks  ;  who  stood  with 
William  of  Orange  or  with  the  partisans  of  James  at  the 
Battle  of  the  Boyne,  which  placed  on  firmer  foundation  the 
unity,  strength,  and  freedom  of  Great  Britain  ;  with  the  Dutch 
at  La  Hogue,  or  with  that  adventurous  warrior,  Charles  the 
XII.  of  Sweden,  against  his  victorious  rival,  Peter  the  Great 
of  Russia.     It  might  have  been  said  of  Washington's  army  as 


34  Commemorative    Oration. 

was  well  said  by  the  poet  of  the  Centennial  of  the  American 

people 

"  In  one  strong  race  all  races  here  unite." 

It  is,  perhaps,  natural  that  the  philosophic  results  of  such  a 
mingling  of  the  best  blood  of  Europe  in  the  American  colo- 
nies should  have  been  less  appreciated  in  sections  that  were 
settled  by  a  single  race  than  in  New  York,  whose  cosmopoli- 
tan character  recalls  the  fact  that  as  early  as  1643  eighteen 
languages  were  spoken  in  the  New  Netherlands. 

Most  happily  for  our  land,  the  colonies  were  gradually 
united  under  the  common  law  and  the  free  institutions  of  Eng- 
land, and  their  Teutonic,  Celtic,  and  Latin  accents  were 
exchanged  for  the  tongue  of  Shakespeare  and  of  Milton.  But 
the  varied  elements  of  nationality  cannot  for  that  reason  be 
forgotten  by  the  student  if  he  would  read  aright  American 
history  and  trace  to  its  sources  American  character.  How, 
for  instance,  could  he  ignore  the  fact  that  the  New  Nether- 
lands, under  the  influence  of  the  Dutch  and  Huguenots, 
became  a  home  for  those  seeking  freedom  of  conscience 
on  this  continent,  as  Holland  had  been  the  refuge  of  the 
oppressed  of  Europe,  and  that  the  religious  toleration  of 
which  the  New  Netherlands  set  the  example  was  not  fully 
enjoyed  in  New  England  till  William  of  Orange,  in  whose 
veins  was  blended  the  blood  of  Maurice  and  of  Coligni,  ended 
by  his  veto  the  Massachusetts  acts  touching  witchcraft,  heresy, 
and  blasphemy. 

It  has  been  remarked  of  the  study  of  history,  and  with 
reference  to  its  unity,  that  the  entire  succession  of  men 
throughout  the  world  should  be  regarded  as  one  man  always 
living  and  incessantly  learning ;  in  this  view  to  how  wide 
a  field  of  education,  and  through  what  ages  of  training  in  the 
varied  schools  of  Europe,  may  be  traced  the  course  of  Ameri- 
can culture. 

There  is  another  interesting  thought  suggested  by  the  pro- 
gress of  light  which  has  been  developed  in  England  by  Mr. 
Froude,  and  in  France  by  M.  Flammarion  ;  that  to  distant 
observers  the  events  of  years  and  ages  that  are  gone  may 
seem  to  be  passing  at  the  present  moment.     The  light  of 


Commemorative    Oration.  35 

Sinus,  for  instance,  takes  nine  years  to  reach  us.  il  Could 
the  inhabitants  of  Sirius,"  says  Mr.  Froude,  in  1864,  "  see  the 
earth  at  this  moment  they  would  see  the  English  army  in  the 
trenches  before  Sebastopol  and  Florence  Nightingdale  watch- 
ing at  Scutari  over  the  wounded  of  Inkermann  ;"  and  Flam- 
marion  suggests  that  an  inhabitant  of  the  earth  instantan- 
eously transported  to  Capella  in  1872,  and  looking  upon  the 
stream  of  light  reflected  from  our  planet,  could  witness  the 
bloody  field  of  Waterloo. 

On  a  like  hypothesis  the  unknown  dwellers  at  further  points 
might  see  passing  before  their  eyes  the  battle  which  we  com- 
memorate to-day,  while  yet  more  distant  observers  receding 
into  space  might  follow  the  historic  panorama  of  our  planet 
through  all  the  ages,  not  as  a  thing  of  the  past  but  as  in 
actual  progress  before  their  eyes. 

Misty  as  may  be  to  us  the  more  distant  periods  seen 
through  the  cloudy  medium  of  imperfect  annals,  we  may 
still  trace  the  transatlantic  sources  of  our  varied  civilization, 
which,  as  developed  in  this  Western  Continent  in  our  hun- 
dredth birth  year,  make  the  American  traveller,  as  he  sets 
foot  in  parts  of  Europe,  feel,  as  Ticknor  said  when  he  crossed 
the  Pyrenees,  "  as  if  he  had  gone  back  two  centuries  in 
time." 

Whilst  our  progress  has  been  respectable  in  the  great  ele- 
ments of  civilization,  sundry  changes  have  been  introduced  into 
the  theory  and  practice  of  our  institutions  since  the  days  of 
Washington,  for  which  Washington  and  his  associates  should 
not  be  held  responsible.  Among  these  changes  are  the  ex- 
tension of  the  suffrage,  especially  in  municipal  affairs,  with  a 
total  abandonment  of  the  checks  and  guards  provided  by  the 
wisdom  of  our  fathers  :  and  the  substitution  of  popular  elec- 
tion for  gubernatorial  or  legislative  appointment  in  the  choice 
of  those  officials  upon  the  excellence  and  purity  of  whose 
management  depend  the  comfort,  the  good  order,  and  the 
exact  economy  of  our  cities. 

Among  the  gravest  questions  presented  by  our  centennial 
is  the  question  how  far  those  changes  have  tended  to  raise  or 
to  debase  our  moral  standard  ;  how  far  it  has  diminished  or 


36  Commemorative    Oration. 

increased  waste,  mismanagement,  and  peculation  ;  how  far  they 
have  lightened  or  augmented  to  rich  and  poor  the  burthens 
of  taxation.  Upon  these  points  we  look  for  light  and  a  prac- 
tical solution  from  the  able  State  Commission  headed  by  Mr. 
Evarts. 

Another  radical  change  in  the  practical  working  of  our 
popular  institutions  is  exhibited  in  our  existing  machinery  by 
means  of  caucuses,  conventions,  and  committees  for  the  regu- 
lation of  the  State  and  National  elections  ;  a  scheme  outeide 
of  the  Constitution,  and,  as  regards  the  choice  of  President, 
at  variance  with  its  intent,  unsanctioned  by  law,  and  yet  im- 
mediately affecting  and  deciding  the  elections  provided  for  by 
law.  It  may  deserve  consideration  how  far  this  scheme, 
whatever  its  advantages,  tends  to  facilitate  the  people  in 
choosing  candidates  with  the  traits  they  require,  or  whether 
it  tends  to  transfer  the  choice  from  the  people  to  the  managers, 
who  might  sometimes  have  views  or  interests  adverse  to  those 
of  the  electors  at  large. 

Our  safety  and  welfare  depend  upon  the  intelligent  and 
patriotic  exercise  by  the  people  of  the  sovereign  power. 
France  has  taught  us  that  a  plebiscite  may  be  invoked  to  sus- 
tain imperialism  ;  and  from  Europe  comes  the  suggestion  that 
with  all  our  democratic  forms  we  know  something  of  the 
despotism  of  oligarchies  ;  and  that  despite  the  boasted  virtue 
and  cleverness  of  our  people,  they  are  more  exposed  than 
Europeans  themselves  to  official  imbecility  and  corruption. 

The  example  of  Washington,  whether  at  the  head  of  the 
army  or  in  the  chair  of  State,  stands  alone  in  history,  and  there 
is  scarcely  an  event  in  our  annals  in  which  that  stately  figure 
is  conspicuous,  from  which  we  may  not  learn  a  lesson. 

Should  the  opening  century  have  in  store  for  you  as  the 
sovereigns  of  the  land,  trials  or  difficulties  like  those  which 
Washington  encountered  at  Kip's  Bay  ;  should  you  chance 
upon  emergencies  calling  for  the  highest  courage  and  devotion 
to  protect  the  honor  of  the  country,  and  should  you,  finding 
cowardice  and  treachery  where  you  looked  for  bravery  and 
truth,  be  moved  to  exclaim,  "  Are  these  the  men  with  whom 


Commemorative    Oration.  37 

we  are  to  defend  America  ?  "  learn  from  the  action  of  the 
Father  of  his  Country,  as  he  rode  down  those  heights  and 
looked  upon  those  plains,  how  to  inspire  with  courage  your 
demoralized  forces,  and  to  wrest  victory  from  defeat. 

Show  no  tenderness  to  those  who  betray  their  posts  ;  toler- 
ate no  policy  of  silence,  concealment,  or  condonement  of  acts 
derogatory  to  the  national  fame  ;  denounce  openly  each  act 
of  infamy  ;  threaten  official  death  and  public  disgrace  in  your 
general  orders  against  all  who  resist  your  instructions  or  who 
reflect  dishonor  on  the  Republic.  But  at  the  same  tfme,  like 
Washington,  reanimate  your  forces :  plan  with  skill  your 
schemes  for  the  discomfiture  of  the  enemy :  call  forth  your 
noblest  sons  from  every  college  and  academy,  from  the  bar, 
the  pulpit,  and  the  press,  as  Washington  deputed  his  most 
trusty  officers — the  Putnams,  and  Clintons,  and  Greenes,  and 
Reeds — to  accompany  and  direct  the  columns  against  the 
boastful  foe  advancing  in  open  view,  and  sounding  their 
bugles  in  derision. 

Let  each  man  who  through  the  coming  century  shall  strive 
to  defend  our  national  heights  against  official  corruption, 
whether  it  comes  secrectly,  in  silence  and  in  darkness,  or  in 
broad  day,  like  an  army  with  banners, —  let  each  man  feel  as 
Washington  taught  his  troops  to  feel,  that  behind  him  are  the 
entrenchments  of  law  and  the  Constitution,  and  a  watchful, 
loyal,  sustaining,  and  appreciative  people. 

We  have  hastily  glanced  at  the  incidents  of  two  days  in  the 
war  of  the  revolution,  and  the  rounding  century  will  presently 
embrace  in  turn  each  chief  event  in  that  memorable  struggle. 

As  we  reverently  recall  our  colonial  and  revolutionary 
fathers  in  the  council  chamber  and  in  the  field,  as  we  cling 
with  affection  and  pride  to  the  Republic  which  they  found- 
ed, with  its  widened  boundaries,  its  welded  unity,  its  extend- 
ed freedom  ;  its  relations  peaceful  with  all  the  powers  ;  its  in- 
fluence for  popular  rights  ;  common  schools  without  sectarian- 
ism, and  its  separation  of  Church  and  State,  felt  in  greater  or 
less  degree  by  all  governments  and  by  all  peoples  :  the  thought 
presses  that  upon  us  devolves  the  duty  and  the  responsibility 
of  preserving  all  that  is  excellent  in  their  work,  all  that  is 


38  Commemorative    Oration. 

noble  in  their  political  standard,  all  that  is  heroic  in  their 
fame. 

Even  now,  as  we  linger  on  the  century  that  has  closed,  01 
attempt  to  foreshadow  that  which  has  begun,  the  dignity, 
the  purity,  the  stability  of  the  Republic  rests  upon  the  honor 
of  the  generation  of  to-day,  as  it  stands  "  a  link  in  the  chain 
of  eternal  order,"  between  the  generations  that  are  past  and 
those  that  are  to  come. 


^El^  YORK  ISLAND 

From  Morns  House  toM?  Gowans  Pass , 

Redurfioru>/'-<>iiitt/iier.<>M(ipZ>raTf7iyA?bi>r/776 


CLCta*  JJarradts  iviltty  tAe 
Americans  and  burned 
on  their  retreat. 


:  tfu  of  Stater X fort,  /ZTAariStJtr 


APPENDIX. 


gen.  washington  to  the  president  of  congress. 

Headquarters,  at  Colonel  Morris's  House, 
i 6  September,  1776. 

On  Saturday  about  sunset,  six  more  of  the  enemy's  ships,  one  or 
two  of  which  were  men-of-war,  passed  between  Governor's  Island  and 
Red  Hook,  and  went  up  the  East  River  to  the  Station  taken  by  those 
mentioned  in  my  last.  In  half  an  hour  I  received  two  expresses, 
one  from  Colonel  Sargent  at  Horen's  Hook,  giving  an  account  that 
the  enemy,  to  the  amount  of  three  or  four  thousand,  had  marched  to 
the  river,  and  were  embarked  for  Barn  or  Montresor's  Island  where 
numbers  of  them  were  then  encamped ;  the  other  from  General  Mifflin, 
that  uncommon  and  formidable  movements  were  discovered  among 
the  enemy ;  which  being  confirmed  by  the  scouts  I  had  sent  out,  1 
proceeded  to  Haerlem,  where  it  was  supposed,  or  at  Morrisania  oppo- 
site to  it,  the  principal  attempt  to  land  would  be  made.  However, 
nothing  remarkable  happened  that  night ;  but  in  the  morning  they 
began  their  operations.  Three  ships  of  war  came  up  the  North  River 
as  high  as  Bloomingdale,  which  put  a  total  stop  to  the  removal,  by 
water  of  any  more  of  our  provision  ;  and  about  eleven  o'clock  those 
in  the  East  River  began  a  most  severe  and  heavy  cannonade,  to  scour 
the  grounds,  and  cover  the  landing  of  their  troops  between  Turtle 
Bay  and  the  city,  where  breastworks  had  been  thrown  up  to  oppose 
them. 

As  soon  as  I  heard  the  firing,  I  rode  with  all  possible  despatch 
towards  the  place  of  landing,  when  to  my  great  surprise  and  mortifica- 
tion, I  found  the  troops  that  had  been  posted  in  the  lines  retreating 
with  the  utmost  precipitation,  and  those  ordered  to  support  them 
(Parsons's  and  Fellows's  brigades)  flying  in  every  direction,  and  in  the 
greatest  confusion,  notwithstanding  the  exertions  of  their  generals  to 
form  them.  I  used  every  means  in  my  power  to  rally  and  get  them 
3 


40  Appendix. 

into  some  order  ;  but  my  attempts  were  fruitless  and  ineffectual ; 
and  on  the  appearance  of  a  small  party  of  the  enemy,  not  more  than 
sixty  or  seventy,  their  disorder  increased,  and  they  ran  away  in  the 
greatest  confusion,  without  firing  a  single  shot. 

Finding  that  no  confidence  was  to  be  placed  in  these  brigades, 
and  apprehending  that  another  party  of  the  enemy  might  pass  over 
to  Haerlem  Plains  and  cut  off  the  retreat  to  this  place,  I  sent  orders 
to  secure  the  heights  in  the  best  manner  with  the  troops  that  were 
stationed  on  and  near  them  ;  which  being  done,  the  retreat  was 
effected  with  but  little  or  no  loss  of  men,  though  of  a  considerable 
part  of  our  baggage,  occasioned  by  this  disgraceful  and  dastardly 
conduct.  Most  of  our  heavy  cannon,  and  part  of  our  stores  and  pro- 
visions, which  we  were  about  removing,  were  unavoidably  left  in  the 
city,  though  every  means,  after  it  had  been  determined  in  council  to 
evacuate  the  post,  had  been  used  to  prevent  it.  We  are  now 
encamped  with  the  main  body  of  the  army  on  the  Heights  of  Haer- 
lem, where  I  should  hope  the  enemy  would  meet  with  a  defeat  in 
case  of  an  attack,  if  the  generality  of  our  troops  would  behave  with 
tolerable  bravery.  But  experience,  to  my  extreme  affliction,  has 
convinced  me  that  this  is  rather  to  be  wished  for  than  expected. 
However,  I  trust  that  there  are  many  who  will  act  like  men,  and 
show  themselves  worthy  of  the  blessings  of  freedom.  I  have  sent 
some  reconnoitring  parties  to  gain  intelligence,  if  possible,  of  the  dis- 
position of  the  enemy,  and  shall  inform  Congress  of  every  material 
event  by  the  earliest  opportunity. 

[Writings  of  Washington,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  93.] 


GEN.    WASHINGTON    TO    THE    PRESIDENT    OF    CONGRESS. 

Headquarters,  at  Coloimel  Roger  Morris's  House, 
18,  September  1776. 

As  my  letter  of  the  16th  contained  intelligence  of  an  important 
nature,  and  such  as  might  lead  Congress  to  expect  that  the  evacua- 
tion of  New  York  and  retreat  to  the  Heights  of  Haerlem,  in  the 
manner  they  were  made,  would  be  succeeded  by  some  other  inter- 
esting event,  I  beg  leave  to  inform  them,  that  as  yet  nothing  has 
been  attempted  upon  a  large  and  general  plan  of  attack.  About  the 
time  of  the  post's  departure  with  my  letter,  the  enemy  appeared  in 


Appendix,  41 

several  large  bodies  upon  the  plains,  about  two  and  a  half  miles  from 
hence.  I  rode  down  to  our  advanced  posts,  to  put  matters  in  a  pro- 
per situation,  if  they  should  attempt  to  come  on.  When  I  arrived 
there  I  heard  a  firing,  which,  I  was  informed,  was  between  a  party  of 
our  Rangers  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Knowlton, 
and  an  advanced  party  of  the  enemy.  Our  men  came  in  and  told 
me,  that  the  body  of  the  enemy,  who  kept  themselves  concealed, 
consisted  of  about  three  hundred,  as  near  as  they  could  guess.  I 
immediately  ordered  three  companies  of  Colonel  Weedon's  regiment 
from  Virginia,  under  the  command  of  Major  Leitch,  an#  Colonel 
Knowlton  with  his  Rangers,  composed  of  volunteers  from  different 
New  England  regiments,  to  try  to  get  in  their  rear,  while  a  disposi- 
tion was  making  as  if  to  attack  them  in  front,  and  thereby  draw  their 
whole  attention  that  way. 

This  took  effect  as  I  wished  on  the  part  of  the  enemy.  On  the 
appearance  of  our  party  in  front,  they  immediately  ran  down  the 
hill,  and  took  possession  of  some  fences  and  bushes,  and  a  smart 
firing  began,  but  at  too  great  a  distance  to  do  much  execution  on  either 
side.  The  parties  under  Colonel  Knowlton  and  Major  Leitch 
unluckily  began  their  attack  too  soon,  as  it  was  rather  in  flank  than 
in  rear.  In  a  little  time  Major  Leitch  was  brought  off  wounded, 
having  received  three  balls  through  his  side  ;  and,  in  a  short  time 
after,  Colonel  Knowlton  got  a  wound,  which  proved  mortal.  Their 
men  however  persevered,  and  continued  the  engagement  with  the 
greatest  resolution.  Finding  that  they  wanted  a  support,  I  advanced 
part  of  Colonel  Griffith's  and  Colonel  Richardson's  Maryland  regi- 
ments, with  some  detachments  from  the  Eastern  regiments  who  were 
nearest  the  place  of  action.  These  troops  charged  the  enemy  with 
great  intrepidity,  and  drove  them  from  the  wood  into  the  plain,  and 
were  pushing  them  from  thence,  having  silenced  their  fire  in  a  great 
measure,  when  I  judged  it  prudent  to  order  a  retreat,  fearing  the 
enemy,  as  I  have  since  found  was  really  the  case,  were  sending  a 
large  body  to  support  their  party. 

Major  Leitch,  I  am  in  hopes  will  recover;  but  Colonel  Knowl- 
ton's  fall  is  much  to  be  regretted,  as  that  of  a  brave  and  good  officer. 
We  had  about  forty  wounded ;  the  number  of  slain  is  not  yet  ascer- 
tained ;  but  it  is  very  inconsiderable.  By  a  sergeant,  who  deserted 
from  the  enemy  and  came  in  this  morning,  I  find  that  their  party  was 
greater  than  I  imagined.  It  consisted  of  the  second  battalion  of 
Light  Infantry,  a  battalion  of  the  Royal  Highlanders,  and  three  com- 


42  Appendix. 

panies  of  Hessian  Riflemen,  under  the  command  of  Brigadier- 
General  Leslie.  The  deserter  reports  that  their  loss  in  wounded 
and  missing  was  eighty-nine,  and  eight  killed.  In  the  latter,  his 
account  is  too  small,  as  our  people  discovered  and  buried  double 
that  number.  This  affair  I  am  in  hopes,  will  be  attended  with 
many  salutary  consequences,  as  it  seems  to  have  greatly  inspirited 
the  whole  of  our  troops.  The  sergeant  further  adds,  that  a  consider- 
able body  of  men  are  now  encamped  from  the  East  to  the  North 
Rivers,  between  the  seven  and  eight  mile-stones  under  the  command 
of  General  Clinton.  General  Howe,  he  believes,  has  his  quarters  at 
Mr.  Apthorp's  house. 

P.S. — I  should  have  wrote  Congress  by  express  before  now,  had 
I  not  expected  the  post  every  minute,  which  I  flatter  myself  will 
be  a  sufficient  apology  for  my  delaying  it. 

The  late  losses  we  have  sustained  in  our  baggage  and  camp  necessa- 
ries, have  added  much  to  our  distress,  which  was  very  great  before. 
I  must  therefore  take  the  liberty  of  requesting  Congress  to  have  for- 
warded, as  soon  as  possible,  such  a  supply  of  tents,  blankets,  camp- 
kettles,  and  other  articles  as  can  be  collected ;  we  cannot  be  over- 
stocked. 

[Force's  American  Archives.] 


gen.  washington  to  gen.  schuyler. 

Headquarters,  Colonel  Roger  Morris's, 

ten  miles  from  New  York,  September  20,  1776. 

I  clearly  see,  and  have  severely  felt  the  ill  effects  of  short  inlist- 
ments,  and  have  repeatedly  given  Congress  my  sentiments  thereon. 
I  believe  they  are  by  this  time  convinced  that  there  is  no  opposing 
a  standing,  well-disciplined  army,  but  by  one  upon  the  same  plan  ; 
and  I  hope,  if  this  campaign  does  not  put  an  end  to  this  contest, 
they  will  put  the  army  upon  a  different  footing  than  what  it  has 
heretofore  been.  I  shall  take  care  to  remind  them  that  the  terms 
for  which  De  Haas's,  Maxwell's,  and  Winds's  regiments  enlisted, 
expire  the  beginning  of  October ;  but  if  they  have  not  already 
thought  of  taking  some  steps  to  secure  them  a  while  longer,  it  will 
be  too  late,  except  the  officers  will  exert  themselves  in  prevailing  on 
the  men  to  stay  until  their  places  can  be  supplied  by  some  means  or 


Appendix.  43 

other.     If  the  officers  are  spirited  and  well  inclined,  they  may  lead 
their  men  as  they  please. 

I  removed  my  quarters  to  this  place  on  Sunday  last,  it  having 
been  previously  determined  by  a  Council  of  General  Officers  on  the 
preceding  Thursday  to  evacuate  New  York.  The  reasons  that  prin- 
cipally weighed  with  them  were,  that  from  every  information,  and 
every  movement  of  the  enemy,  it  was  clear  that  their  attack  was  not 
meditated  against  the  city ;  their  intent  evidently  was,  to  throw  their 
whole  army  between  part  of  ours  in  New  York  and  its  environs,  and 
the  remainder  about  King's  Bridge,  and  thereby  cut  of£  our  com- 
munication with  each  other  and  with  the  country.  Indeed,  their 
operations  on  Sunday  last,  fully  satisfied  the  opinion  of  the  Council, 
and  the  steps  taken  in  consequence ;  for  on  that  morning  they  began 
their  landing  at  Turtle  Bay,  and  continued  to  throw  over  great  num- 
bers of  men  from  Long  Island,  and  from  Montressor's  and  Buchanan's 
[s lands,  on  which  they  had  previously  lodged  them.  As  we  had 
exerted  ourselves  in  removing  our  sick  and  stores  of  every  kind,  after 
the  measure  of  abandoning  had  been  determined  upon,  very  few 
things,  and  but  three  or  four  men,  fell  into  the  enemy's  hands. 

On  Monday  last,  we  had  a  pretty  sharp  skirmish  between  two  bat- 
talions of  Light  Infantry  and  Highlanders  and  three  companies  of 
Hessian  Riflemen,  commanded  by  Brigadier  Leslie,  and  detachments 
from  our  army,  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant- Colonel  Knowlton, 
of  Connecticut,  and  Major  Leitch,  of  Virginia.  The  Colonel  received 
a  mortal  wound,  and  the  Major  three  balls  through  his  body,  but  he 
is  likely  to  do  well.  Their  parties  behaved  with  great  bravery,  and 
being  supported  with  fresh  troops,  beat  the  enemy  fairly  from  the 
field.  Our  loss,  except  in  that  of  Colonel  Knowlton,  a  most  valu- 
able and  gallant  officer,  is  inconsiderable — that  of  the  enemy,  from 
accounts,  between  eighty  and  one  hundred  wounded,  and  fifteen  or 
twenty  killed.  This  little  advantage  has  inspirited  our  troops  pro- 
digiously ;  they  find  that  it  only  requires  resolution  and  good  officers 
to  make  an  enemy  (that  they  stood  in  too  much  dread  of)  give  way. 

The  British  army  lies  encamped  about  two  miles  below  us  ;  they 
are  busy  in  bringing  over  their  cannon  and  stores  from  Long  Island, 
and  we  are  putting  ourselves  in  the  best  posture  of  defence  that  time 
and  circumstances  will  admit  of. 

[Force's  American  Archives.]  j 


44  Appendix. 


GEN.    WASHINGTON    TO    THE    N.    Y.    STATE    CONVENTION. 

Headquarters,  at  the  Heights  of  Harlem, 
September  23,  1776. 

Sir  : — Your  favour  of  the  21st  instant,  enclosing  the  resolution  of 
the  Representatives  of  the  State  of  New  York,  has  come  duly  to 
hand,  and  will  be  properly  attended  to.  I  am  exceedingly  obliged 
by  the  readiness  you  declare  you  will  pay  to  any  commands  which 
you  may  receive  from  me  respecting  the  great  cause  in  which  we  are 
engaged. 

The  manoeuvres  of  the  enemy,  before  their  landing  on  Sunday  last, 
were  various  and  perplexing;  however,  about  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  they  became  extremely  plain  and  obvious.  At  that  time 
they  began  their  operations  by  sending  three  ships  of  war  up  the 
North  River  as  high  as  Bloomingdale,  which  put  a  stop  to  the  remo- 
val of  our  stores  by  water ;  and  about  eleven  o'clock  those  in  the 
East  River  began  a  constant  and  heavy  cannonade  for  the  purpose  of 
scouring  the  grounds  and  covering  the  landing  of  their  troops,  where 
breastworks  had  been  thrown  up  to  oppose  them.  As  soon  as  I 
heard  the  firing  I  immediately  repaired  to  the  place  of  landing,  when, 
to  my  extreme  astonishment,  I  discovered  the  troops,  who  were 
posted  in  the  lines,  retreating  in  the  greatest  disorder,  and  Parsons' s 
and  Fellows' s  brigades,  who  were  directed  to  support  them,  retreat- 
ing in  the  greatest  confusion,  and  without  making  the  slightest  oppo- 
sition, although  only  a  small  party  of  the  enemy  appeared  in  view. 
As  I  perceived  no  dependence  could  be  reposed  in  these  troops, 
and  apprehending  another  impression  might  be  made  on  the  Harlem 
plains,  by  which  means  our  retreat  to  this  place  might  be  cut  off, 
I  directed  the  heights  to  be  secured,  and  our  retreat  was  effected 
with  little  or  no  loss  of  men,  though  of  a  considerable  part  of  the 
baggage,  some  of  our  heavy  cannon  and  a  part  of  our  stores  and 
provisions,  which  we  were  about  removing,  was  unavoidably  left  in 
the  city,  though  every  means  (after  it  had  been  determined  in  coun- 
cil to  abandon  the  post)  had  been  used  to  prevent  it. 

On  Monday  morning  last,  several  parties  of  the  enemy  appeared 
on  the  high  grounds  opposite  to  our  heights,  and  some  skirmishing 
had  happened  between  our  troops  and  those  of  the  enemy.  On 
reconnoitring  their  situation,  I  formed  the  design  of  cutting  off  such 
of  them  as  had  or  might  advance  to  the  extremity  of  the  wood.  I 
accordingly  ordered  three  companies  of  Virginia  riflemen,  under  the 


Appendix.  45 

command  of  Major  Leitch  and  Colonel  Knowlton  with  his  rangers  to 
endeavour  to  get  in  their  rear,  while  an  apparent  disposition  was 
making  as  if  to  attack  them  in  front.  The  enemy  ran  down  the  hill 
with  great  eagerness  to  attack  the  party  in  front ;  but  unluckily,  from 
some  mistake  or  misapprehension,  the  parties  under  Major  Leitch 
and  Colonel  Knowlton  began  the  fire  on  their  flank  instead  of  their 
rear.  The  Major  was  soon  brought  off  the  field  wounded,  and 
Col.  Knowlton  soon  received  a  wound,  of  which  he  is  since  dead. 
Their  men  however  behaved  with  the  greatest  resolution.  Finding 
that  they  wanted  assistance,  I  advanced  part  of  Colonel  Griffith's 
and  Colonel  Richardson's  Maryland  regiments,  with  some  detach- 
ments of  Eastern  troops,  who  charged  the  enemy  and  drove  them 
from  the  wood  to  the  plain,  and  were  still  pursuing,  when  I  judged 
it  prudent  to  withdraw  them,  fearing  the  enemy  might  be  sending  a 
a  large  i enforcement  to  their  troops  which  were  engaged,  which 
was  the  case,  as  I  have  since  understood.  A  sergeant  who  deserted 
from  the  enemy  has  informed  me  their  party  was  greater  than  1  imag- 
ined ;  as  it  consisted  of  the  second  battalion  of  Light  Infantry,  a  bat- 
talion of  Royal  Highlanders,  and  three  companies  of  Hessian  Rifle- 
men under  the  command  of  General  Leslie.  Their  loss,  by  his 
report  amounted  to  eighty-nine  wounded  and  missing,  and  eight 
killed  ;  in  the  latter  his  account  is  altogether  imperfect,  as  our  people 
discovered  and  buried  double  that  number.  I  am  in  hopes  this  little 
success  will  be  productive  of  salutary  consequences,  as  our  army 
seems  to  be  greatly  inspirited  by  it. 

[Correspondence  N.  Y.  Provincial  Congress,  p.  217.] 


GEN.    WASHINGTON    TO    PATRICK    HENRY,    GOVERNOR    OF    VIRGINIA. 

Headquarters,  Heights  of  Harlem, 
October  5,  1776. 

Our  retreat  from  Long  Island,  under  the  peculiar  circumstances 
we  then  laboured,  became  an  act  of  prudence  and  necessity,  and  the 
evacuation  of  New  York  was  a  consequence  resulting  from  the  other. 
Indeed,  after  we  discovered  the  enemy  instead  of  making  an  attack 
upon  the  city  were  endeavouring  (by  means  of  their  ships  and  supe- 
riour  land  force)  either  to  intercept  our  retreat,  by  getting  in  our  rear, 
or  else  by  landing  their  forces  between  our  divisions  at  King's  Bridge, 


46  Appendix. 

and  those  in  the  town,  to  separate  the  one  from  the  other,  it  became 
a  matter  of  the  last  importance  to  alter  the  disposition  of  the  army. 

These  measures,  however,  although  of  the  most  evident  utility, 
have  been  productive  of  some  inconvenience ;  the  troops  having 
become  in  some  measure  dispirited  by  these  successive  retreats,  and 
which,  I  presume,  has  also  been  the  case  among  several  of  our 
friends  in  the  country.  In  order  to  recover  that  military  ardour, 
which  is  of  the  utmost  moment  to  an  army,  almost  immediately  on 
my  arrival  at  this  place  I  formed  a  design  of  cutting  off  some  of  the 
enemy's  light  troops,  who,  encouraged  by  their  successes,  had  ad- 
vanced to  the  extremity  of  the  high  ground  opposite  to  our  present 
encampment.  To  effect  this  salutary  purpose,  Colonel  Knowlton 
and  Major  Leitch  were  detached  with  parties  of  Riflemen  and  Rangers, 
to  get  in  their  rear,  while  a  disposition  was  made  as  if  to  attack  them 
in  front.  By  some  unhappy  mistake,  the  fire  was  commenced  from 
that  quarter  rather  on  their  flank  than  in  their  rear,  by  which  means 
though  the  enemy  were  defeated  and  pushed  off  the  ground,  yet  they 
had  an  opportunity  of  retreating  to  their  main  body.  This  piece  of 
success,  though  it  tended  greatly  to  inspire  our  troops  with  con- 
fidence, has  been  in  some  measure  embittered  by  the  loss  of  those 
two  brave  officers,  who  are  dead  of  the  wounds  they  received  in  the 
action.  Since  this  skirmish  except  the  affair  at  Montressor's  Island, 
where  Major  Henly,  another  of  our  best  officers  was  slain,  there  has 
been  nothing  of  any  material  consequence.  Indeed,  the  advantage 
obtained  over  the  enemy's  light  troops  might  have  been  improved, 
perhaps,  to  a  considerable  extent,  had  we  been  in  a  proper  situation 
to  have  made  use  of  this  favourable  crisis,  but  a  want  of  confidence 
in  the  generality  of  the  troops  has  prevented  me  from  availing  my- 
self of  that,  and  almost  every  other  opportunity  which  has  presented 
itself. 

I  own  my  fears  that  this  must  ever  be  the  case  when  our  depend- 
ence is  placed  on  men  inlisted  for  a  few  months,  commanded  by 
such  officers  as  party  or  accident  may  have  furnished,  and  on  Militia, 
who,  as  soon  as  they  are  fairly  fixed  in  the  camp,  are  impatient  to 
return  to  their  own  homes ;  and  who,  from  an  utter  disregard  of  all 
discipline  and  restraint  among  themselves,  are  but  too  apt  to  infuse 
the  like  spirit  into  others.  The  evils  of  short  inlistments,  and  em- 
ploying militia  to  oppose  against  regular  and  well  appointed  troops, 
I  strongly  urged  to  Congress  before  the  last  army  was  engaged.  In- 
deed, my  own  situation   at  Cambridge,  about  the  close  of  the  last 


Appendix.  47 

campaign,  furnished  the  most  striking  example  of  the  fatal  tendency 
of  such  measures.  I  then  clearly  foresaw  that  such  an  armament 
as  we  had  good  reason  to  expect  would  be  sent  against  us,  could  be 
opposed  only  by  troops  inlisted  during  the  war,  and  where  every 
action  would  add  to  their  experience  and  improvement,  and  of  whom, 
if  they  were  unsuccessful  in  the  beginning,  a  reasonable  hope  might 
be  entertained  that  in  time  they  would  become  as  well  acquainted 
with  their  business  as  their  enemies.  This  method,  I  am  convinced, 
would  have  been  attended  with  every  good  consequence  ;  for,  besides 
the  Militia's  being  altogether  unfit  for  the  service  when  called  into  the 
field,  we  have  discovered,  from  experience  that  they  are  lirach  more 
expensive  than  any  other  kind  of  troops  ;  and  that  the  war  could 
have  been  conducted  on  more  moderate  terms  by  establishing  a  per- 
manent body  of  forces,  who  were  equal  to  every  contingency,  than 
by  calling  in  the  Militia  on  imminent  and  pressing  occasions. 

[Force's  American  Archives.] 


ADJ.    GEN.    JOSEPH    REED    TO    HIS    WIFE. 

Heights  near  Kingsbridge, 
Sept.  17,  1776. 

I  wrote  you  yesterday  pr  Post  giving  you  an  Account  of  our  leav- 
ing New  York.  This  had  been  determined  on  several  Days  ago — 
but  the  Removal  of  the  Sick  &  many  other  Circumstances  prevented 
its  being  done  with  that  Expedition  it  ought  to  have  been.  Had 
the  landing  of  the  Enemy  been  delayed  one  Day  longer  we  should 
have  left  them  the  City.  But  an  unfortunate  Idea  took  Place  in  the 
Mind  of  some  of  our  Northern  Generals  that  it  might  be  defended 
or  at  least  that  some  considerable  Opposition  might  be  made  to  the 
Landing — they  undertook  it — permitted  the  Enemy  to  land  without 
even  giving  one  Fire,  could  never  be  form'd  but  were  drove  by  one 
Tenth  of  their  Numbers — However  as  I  gave  you  a  particular 
Ace1,  yesterday  I  need  not  repeat  it — Just  after  I  had  sealed  my 
Letter  &  sent  it  away,  an  Ace1,  came  that  the  Enemy  were  advanc- 
ing upon  us  in  three  large  Columns — we  have  so  many  false  Reports 
that  I  desired  the  General  to  permit  me  to  go  &  discover  what  Truth 
there  was  in  the  Ace*.  I  accordingly  went  down  to  our  most  ad- 
vanced Guard  &  while  I  was  talking  with  the  Officer,  the  Enemy's 
advanced  Guard  fired  upon  us  at  a  small  Distance,  our  men  behaved 


48  Appendix . 

well  stood  &  re  turn' d  die  Fire  till  overpowered  by  numbers  they 
were  obliged  to  retreat — the  Enemy  advanced  upon  us  very  fast 
I  had  not  quitted  a  House  5  minutes  before  they  were  in  Possession 
of  it — Finding  how  things  were  going  I  went  over  to  the  General  to 
get  some  support  for  the  brave  Fellows  who  had  behaved  so  well — 
by  the  Time  I  got  to  him  the  Enemy  appeared  in  open  view  & 
in  the  most  insulting  manner  sounded  their  Bugle  Horns  as  is  usual 
after  a  Fox  Chase.  I  never  felt  such  a  sensation  before  it  seem'd 
to  crown  our  Disgrace.  The  General  was  prevailed  on  to  order 
over  a  Party  to  attack  them  &  as  I  had  been  upon  the  Ground  which 
no  one  else  had  it  fell  to  me  to  conduct  them — an  unhappy  Move- 
ment was  made  by  a  Reg*,  of  ours  which  had  been  ordered  to  amuse 
them  while  those  I  was  with  expected  to  take  them  in  the  Rear — but 
being  diverted  by  this  the  Virginia  Regim*.  with  which  I  was  went 
another  course  finding  there  was  no  stopping  them  I  went  with 
them  the  new  Way — &  in  a  few  Minutes  our  brave  Fellows  mounted 
up  the  Rocks  &  attacked  them  then  they  ran  in  Turn — each  Party 
sent  in  more  Succours  so  that  at  last  it  became  a  very  considerable 
Engagement  &  Men  fell  on  every  side — however  our  Troops  still 
press' d  on  drove  the  Enemy  above  a  Mile  &  a  half  till  the  General 
ordered  them  to  give  over  the  Pursuit  fearing  the  whole  of  the  Ene- 
my's Army  would  advance  upon  them  they  retreated  in  very  good 
order  &  I  assure  you  it  has  given  another  Face  of  Things  in  our 
Army — the  Men  have  recovered  their  Spirits  &  feel  a  Confidence 
which  before  they  had  quite  lost — We  have  several  Prisoners  &  have 
buried  a  considerable  Number  of  their  dead — our  own  Loss  is  also 
considerable — the  Virginia  Major  (Leech)  who  went  up  first  with  me 
was  wounded  with  3  Shott  in  less  than  3  Minutes — but  our  greatest 
Loss  was  a  brave  Officer  from  Connecticut  whose  Name  &  Spirit 
ought  to  be  immortalized  one  Col  Knowlton — I  assisted  him  off  & 
when  gasping  in  the  Agonies  of  Death  all  his  Inquiry  was  if  we  had 
drove  the  Enemy. 

Be  not  alarm' d,  my  dear  Creature  when  I  tell  you  the  Horse  I 
rode  received  a  Shot  [just]  behind  his  fore  shoulder — it  happened  to 
be  [one]  taken  from  a  Number  on  the  Hill — Tho'  [many  fell]  round 
me  thank  God  I  was  not  struck  [by]  a  single  Ball  &  I  have  the  great 
Happiness  [to  know]  that  I  have  by  getting  the  General  to  [direct  a] 
Reinforcement  to  go  over  contributed  in  [some  way]  to  the  Benefit 
which  may  result  from  this  [action].  When  I  speak  of  its  Impor- 
tance I  do  not  mean  that  I  think  the  Enemy  have  suffered  a  Loss 


Appendix.  49 

which  will  affect  their  operations— but  it  has  given  Spirits  to  our 
Men  that  I  hope  they  will  now  look  the  Enemy  in  the  Face  with 
Confidence— but  alas  our  situation  here  must  soon  be  a  very  distress- 
ing one  if  we  do  not  receive  much  Relief  in  the  Articles  of  stores, 
Provision,  Forage  &c.  The  Demands  of  a  large  Army  are  very 
great  &  we  are  in  a  very  doubtful  Condition  on  this  Head. 
[Reed  Papers,  N.  Y.  Historical  Society.] 


ADJ.    GEN.    JOSEPH    REED    TO    HIS    WIFE. 

New  York,  Sept.  22.  1776. 
I  have  just  received  yours  of  the  20th  by  which  I  imagine  one  of 
mine  wrote  the  Day  after  the  Engagement  of  the  17th  had  not  got 
to  Hand  wherein  I  gave  you  the  particulars  which  I  was  able  to  do 
better  than  almost  any  other  Person  as  I  happened  to  be  in  it  when 
it  began  &  assisted  in  calling  off  our  Troops — when  they  had  pursued 
the  Enemy  as  far  as  was  thought  proper.  It  hardly  deserves  the 
Name  of  a  Battle,  but  as  it  was  a  Scene  so  different  from  what  had 
happened  the  Day  before  it  elevated  our  Troops  very  much  &  in 
that  Respect  has  been  of  great  Service  It  would  take  up  too  much 
Time  &  Paper  to  go  into  a  minute  Description  of  the  whole  Affair. 
The  Substance  is,  that  we  had  a  Party  out  under  a  very  brave  Con- 
necticut officer  Knowlton  (who  fell)  watching  the  Motions  of  the 
Enemy — an  Ace1  was  brought  up  that  the  Enemy  was  advancing 
upon  us  in  3  Columns — but  as  we  had  so  often  been  deceived  by 
these  Reports — I  went  out  to  see  what  Truth  there  was  in  it — &  fell 
in  with  the  above  Party — while  I  was  talking  with  the  Officer  the 
Enemy  advanced  &  the  Firing  began  at  about  50  Yards  Distance 
as  they  were  10  to  1  ag*  our  Party  we  immediately  retreated — I 
came  off  to  the  General  &  after  some  ^little  Hesitation  prevailed  on 
him  to  let  a  Party  go  up — which  as  I  had  been  on  the  Ground  I  led 
myself  they  were  Virginia  Troops  commanded  by  a  brave  Officer 
Major  Leech — I  accordingly  went  with  them  but  was  unhappily 
thwarted  in  my  Scheme  by  some  Persons  calling  to  the  Troops  &  tak- 
ing them  out  of  the  Road  I  intended — however  we  went  up  both  Men 
&  Officers  with  great  spirit — at  the  same  Time  some  of  our  Troops 
on  another  Quarter  moved  up  towards  the  Enemy  &  the  Action 
began — Major   Leech   fell  near   me  in  a  few  Minutes  with  3  Balls 


50  Appendix. 

through  him  but  is  likely  to  do  well.  Knowlton  also  fell  mortally 
wounded  I  mounted  him  on  my  Horse  &  brought  him  off — In 
about  10  [minutes]  our  People  pressing  on  with  great  Ardour  the 
Enemy  gave  Way  &  left  us  the  Ground  which  was  strew' d  pretty 
thick  with  dead  chiefly  of  the  Enemy  tho  it  since  turns  out  that 
our  Loss  is  also  considerable — The  pursuit  of  a  flying  Enemy 
was  so  new  a  Scene  that  it  was  with  Difficulty  our  Men  could  be 
brought  to  retreat — which  they  did  in  very  good  Order — we  buried  the 
Dead  &  brought  off  the  wounded  on  both  sides  as  far  as  our  troops 
had  pursued.  We  have  since  learned  that  the  main  Body  of  the 
Enemy  was  hastily  advancing  so  that  in  all  Probability  there  would 
have  been  a  Reverse  of  Things  if  the  Pursuit  had  not  been  given 
over  as  it  was — You  can  hardly  conceive  the  Change  it  made  in 
our  Army — I  hope  its  Effects  will  be  lasting — You  will  probably 
hear  from  other  Quarters  the  double  Escape  I  had — My  own  Horse 
not  being  at  Hand  I  borrowed  one  from  a  young  Philadelphian — he 
received  a  Shot  just  behind  his  fore  Shoulder  which  narrowly  missed 
my  Leg.  I  am  told  that  he  is  since  dead — But  the  greatest  was  from 
one  of  our  own  Rascals  who  was  running  away,  upon  my  driving 
him  back  a  second  Time  he  presented  his  Piece  &  snapp'd  at  me 
at  about  a  Rod  Distance — I  seized  a  Piece  from  another  Soldier 
&  snapp'd  at  him — but  he  had  the  same  good  Luck.  He  has  been 
since  tried  &  is  now  under  Sentence  of  Death — but  I  believe  I 
must  beg  him  off  as  after  I  found  I  could  not  get  the  Gun  off,  I 
wounded  him  in  the  Head  &  cut  off  his  Thumb  with  my  Hanger — I 
suppose  many  Persons  will  think  it  was  rash  &  imprudent  for  Officers 
of  our  Rank  to  go  into  such  an  Action  (Gen1  Puttnam,  Gen.  Green, 
many  of  the  General's  family — Mr  Tilghman  &e  were  in  it)  but  it  was 
really  done  to  animate  the  Troops  who  were  quite  dispirited  &  would 
not  go  into  Danger  unless  their  officers  led  the  Way. 

Our  Situation  is  very  much  the  same  as  it  was — we  are  fortifying 
Ground  naturally  strong.  The  Enemy  lay  about  3  Miles  from  us — 
they  have  been  very  busy  bringing  over  Cannon,  &c  from  Long 
Island  but  we  cannot  learn  what  they  intend. 

The  Night  before  last  there  was  a  most  dreadful  Fire  in  the  City 
but  how  it  happened  we  are  quite  at  a  Loss — There  was  a  Resolve  of 
Congress  against  our  injuring  it,  so  that  we  neither  set  it  on  Fire  or 
made  any  Preparations  for  the  Purpose — Tho  I  make  no  Doubt  it 
will  be  charged  to  us. 

[Reed  Papers,  N.  Y.  Historical  Society.] 


Appendix.  5 1 


GEN.    GEORGE    CLINTON    TO    NEW   YORK    CONVENTION. 

Kings  Bridge,  September  18,  1776. 

Since  my  last,  many  matters  of  Importance  to  the  Public,  and 
more  particularly  to  this  State,  have  taken  place  ;  But  I  have  been 
so  Situated  as  neither  to  find  Leisure  or  Opportunity  of  communica- 
ting them  to  Congress.  I  returned  late  last  Night  from  the  Com- 
mand of  the  Picquet  or  Advanced  Party,  in  the  Front  of  our  Lines, 
and  was  just  setting  down  to  write  to  the  Convention,  and  intended 
sending  an  Express,  when  I  was  favored  with  yours  of  Yesterday. 

About  the  middle  of  last  Week  it  was  determined,  for  many  Rea- 
sons, to  evacuate  the  City  of  New  York  ;  and  accordingly  Orders 
were  given  for  removing  the  Ordnance,  Military,  &  other  Stores 
from  thence,  which,  by  Sunday  morning  was  nearly  effected.  On 
Saturday,  four  of  the  Enemy's  large  Ships  passed  by  the  City  up  the 
North  River,  and  anchored  near  Greenage,  and  about  as  many 
more  up  the  East  River,  which  anchored  in  Turtle  Bay ;  and  from 
the  Movements  of  the  Enemy  on  Long  Island  and  the  small  Islands 
in  the  East  River,  we  had  great  reason  to  apprehend  they  intended  to 
make  a  Landing,  and  attack  our  Lines  somewhere  near  the  City. 
Our  Army  for  some  Days  had  been  moving  upwards  this  way,  and 
encamping  on  the  Heights,  south-west  of  Co11.  Morris's,  where  we 
intended  to  form  Lines,  and  make  our  grand  Stand.  On  Sunday 
morning  the  Enemy  landed  a  very  considerable  Body  of  Troops, 
principally  consisting  of  their  Light  Infantry  &  Grenadiers,  near  Turtle 
Bay,  under  Cover  of  a  very  heavy  Cannonade  from  their  Shipping, 
our  Lines  were  but  thinly  manned  as  they  were  then  intended  only  to 
secure  a  Retreat  to  the  Rear  of  our  Army,  &  unfortunately  by  such 
Troops  as  were  so  little  disposed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  Grape  Shot 
that  the  main  Body  of  them  almost  instantly  retreated,  nay,  fled  with- 
out a  possibility  of  rallying  them,  tho'  General  Washington  himself 
(who  rid  to  the  spot  on  hearing  the  Cannonade)  with  some  other 
General  Officers,  exerted  themselves  to  effect  it. 

The  Enemy,  on  Landing,  immediately  formed  a  Line  across  the 
Island,  most  of  our  People  were  luckily  North  of  it,  and  joined  the 
Army.  Those  few  that  were  in  the  City  crossed  the  River,  chiefly  to 
Powles-Hook,  so  that  our  loss  in  Men,  Artillery,  or  Stores,  is  very 
inconsiderable.  I  don't  believe  it  exceeds  100  Men,  and  I  fancy 
most    of  them,  from   their   Conduct,  staid  out   of  Choice.     Before 


52  Appendix. 

Evening,  the  Enemy  landed  the  main  Body  of  their  Army,  took 
Possession  of  the  City,  &  marched  up  the  Island,  &  encamped  on  the 
Heights  extending  from  McGown'sand  the  Black  Horse  to  the  North 
River. 

On  Monday  morning,  about  ten  o' Clock,  a  party  of  the  Enemy, 
consisting  of  Highlanders,  Hessians,  the  Light  Infantry,  Grenadiers, 
and  English  Troops  (Number  uncertain)  attack' d  our  advanc'd  Party, 
commanded  by  Co11.  Knowlton  at  Martje  Davits  Fly.  They  were 
opposed  with  spirit,  and  soon  made  to  retreat  to  a  clear  Field,  south- 
west of  that  about  200  paces,  where  they  lodged  themselves  behind 
a  Fence  covered  with  Bushes  our  People  attacked  them  in  Turn, 
and  caused  them  to  retreat  a  second  Time,  leaving  five  dead  on  the 
Spot,  we  pursued  them  to  a  Buckwheat  Field  on  the  Top  of  a  high 
Hill,  distance  about  four  hundred  paces,  where  they  received  a  con- 
siderable Reinforcement,  with  several  Field  Pieces,  and  there  made 
a  Stand  a  very  brisk  Action  ensued  at  this  Place,  which  continued 
about  Two  Hours  our  People  at  length  worsted  them  a  third  Time, 
caused  them  to  fall  back  into  an  Orchard,  from  thence  across  a 
Hollow,  and  up  another  Hill  not  far  distant  from  their  own  Lines — 
A  large  Column  of  the  Enemy's  Army  being  at  this  Time  discovered 
to  be  in  motion,  and  the  Ground  we  then  occupied  being  rather 
disadvantageous  a  Retreat  likewise,  without  bringing  on  a  general 
Action,  (which  we  did  not  think  prudent  to  risk,)  rather  insecure, 
our  party  was  therefore  ordered  in,  and  the  Enemy  was  well  con- 
tented to  hold  the  last  Ground  we  drove  them  to. 

We  lost,  on  this  occasion,  Co11  Knowlton  a  brave  Officer  &  sixteen 
Privates,  kill'd.  Major  Leech,  from  Virginia,  and  about  Eight  or  ten 
subaltern  Officers  and  Privates  wounded.  The  Loss  of  the  Enemy  is 
uncertain.  They  carried  their  Dead  and  wounded  off,  in  and  soon 
after  the  Action  ;  but  we  have  good  Evidence  of  their  having  up- 
wards of  60  kill'd,  &  violent  presumption  of  100.  The  Action,  in  the 
whole,  lasted  ab*  4  Hours. 

I  consider  our  Success  in  this  small  affair,  at  this  Time,  almost 
equal  to  a  Victory.  It  has  animated  our  Troops,  gave  them  new 
Spirits,  and  erazed  every  bad  Impression,  the  Retreat  from  Long 
Island,  &c.  had  left  on  their  minds,  they  find  they  are  able,  with 
inferior  Numbers,  to  drive  their  Enemy,  and  think  of  nothing  now 
but  Conquest. 

Since  the  above  affair,  nothing  material  has  happened  the  Enemy 
keep  close   to  their  Lines.     Our  advanc'd  Parties  continue  at  their 


Appendix.  53 

former  Station.     We  are   daily  throwing  up  Works  to  prevent  the 

Enemy  advancing  ;  great  attention  is  paid  to   Fort  Washington,  the 

Posts  opposite   to  it  on   the  Jersey  Shore,  &  the   Obstructions  in 

the   River  which,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  is  already  effectual,  so 

as  to  prevent  their  Shipping  passing  ;  however,  it  is  intended  still  to 

add  to  them,  as  it  is  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  keep  the  Enemy 

below  us. 

[Miscellaneous  MSS.,  N.  Y.  Historical  Society.] 


y 

GEN.    GEORGE    CLINTON    TO    DR.    PETER   TAPPEN. 

King's  Bridge  21st.  Sept.  1776. 

I  have  been  so  hurried  &  Fatigued  out  of  the  ordinary  way  of  my 
Duty  by  the  removal  of  our  Army  from  New  York  &  great  Part  of 
the  public  stores  to  this  Place  that  it  has  almost  worn  me  out  tho'  as 
to  Health  I  am  well  as  usual ;  but  how  my  Constitution  has  been  able 
to  stand  lying  out  several  Nights  in  the  Open  Air  &  exposed  to  Rain 
is  almost  a  Miracle  to  me — Whom  at  Home  the  least  Wet  indeed 
some  Times  the  Change  of  Weather  almost  laid  me  up. 

The  Evacuation  of  the  City  I  suppose  has  much  alarmed  the 
Country.  It  was  judged  untenable  in  Council  of  Gen1  Officers  con- 
sidering the  Enemy  possessed  of  Long-Island  &c,  and  was  therefore 
advised  to  be  evacuated.  The  Artillery  (at  least  all  worth  moving)  & 
almost  all  the  public  stores  were  removed  out  of  it  so  that  when 
the  Enemy  landed  &  attacked  our  Lines  near  the  City  we  had  but 
few  Men  there  (those  indeed  did  not  behave  well)  our  Loss  however 
by  our  Retreat  from  there  either  in  Men  or  Stores  is  very  inconsider- 
able. I  would  not  be  understood  that  it  is  my  Opinion  to  evacuate 
the  City  neither  do  I  mean  now  to  condemn  the  Measure  it  is 
done  intended  for  the  best  I  am  certain. 

The  same  Day  the  Enemy  possessed  themselves  of  the  City,  to 
wit,  last  Sunday  they  landed  the  Main  Body  of  their  Army  &  en- 
camped on  York  Island  across  about  the  Eight  Mile  Stone  &  between 
that  &  the  four  Mile  Stone.  Our  Army  at  least  one  Division  of  it 
lay  at  Col°  Morris's  &  so  southward  to  near  the  Hollow  Way  which 
runs  across  from  Harlem  Flat  to  the  North  River  at  Matje  Davit's 
Fly.  About  halfway  between  which  two  Places  our  Lines  run  across 
the  River  which  indeed  at  that  Time  were  only  began  but  are  now  in 
a  very  defensible  state.     On   Monday  Morning  the   Enemy  attacked 


54  Appendix. 

our  Advanced  Party  Commanded  by  Col°  Knowlton  (a  brave  Officer 
who  was  killed  in  the  Action)  near  the  Point  of  Matje  Davit's  Fly 
the  Fire  was  very  brisk  on  both  sides  our  People  however  soon  drove 
them  back  into  a  Clear  Field  about  200  Paces  South  East  of  that 
where  they  lodged  themselves  behind  a  Fence  covered  with  Bushes 
our  People  pursued  them  but  being  oblidged  to  stand  exposed  in  the 
open  Field  or  take  a  Fence  at  a  Considerable  Distance  they  pre- 
ferred the  Latter  it  was  indeed  adviseable  for  we  soon  brought  a 
Couple  t>f  Field  Pieces  to  bear  upon  them  which  fairly  put  them  to 
Flight  with  two  Discharges  only  the  Second  Time  our  People  pur- 
sued them  closely  to  the  Top  of  a  Hill  about  400  paces  distant  where 
they  received  a  very  Considerable  Reinforcement  &  made  their  Sec- 
ond Stand  Our  People  also  had  received  a  Considerable  Rein- 
forcement, and  at  this  Place  a  very  brisk  Action  commenced  which 
continued  for  near  two  Hours  in  which  Time  we  drove  the  Enemy 
into  a  Neighbouring  orchard  from  that  across  a  Hollow  &  up  another 
Hill  not  far  Distant  from  their  own  Encampment,  here  we  found  the 
Ground  rather  Disadvantageous  &  a  Retreat  insecure  we  therefore 
thot  proper  not  to  pursue  them  any  farther  &  retired  to  our  first 
first  Ground  leaving  the  Enemy  on  the  last  Ground  we  drove  them 
to — that  Night  I  commanded  the  Right  Wing  of  our  advanced  Party 
or  Picket  on  the  Ground  the  Action  first  began  of  which  Col°  Pawl- 
ing &  Col°  Nicoll's  Regiment  were  part  and  next  Day  I  sent  a  Party 
to  bury  our  Dead.  They  found  but  1 7.  The  Enemy  removed  theirs 
in  the  Night  we  found  above  60  Places  where  dead  Men  had  lay 
from  Pudles  of  Blood  &  other  appearances  &  at  other  Places  frag- 
ments of  Bandages  &  Lint.  From  the  best  Account  our  Loss  killed 
&  wounded  is  not  much  less  than  seventy  seventeen  of  which  only 
dead  (this  Account  of  our  Loss  exceeds  what  I  mentioned  in  a  Let- 
ter I  wrote  Home  indeed  at  that  Time  I  only  had  an  account  of  the 
Dead — the  Wounded  were  removed — 12  oclock  M.  Sunday  two 
Deserters  from  on  Board  the  Bruno  Man  of  War  lying  at  Morrisania 
say  the  Enemy  had  300  killed  on  Monday  last,)  the  Rest  most  likely 
do  well  &  theirs  is  somewhere  about  300 — upwards  it  is  generally 
believed — Tho  I  was  in  the  latter  Part  indeed  almost  the  whole  of 
the  Action  I  did  not  think  so  many  Men  were  engaged.  It  is  with- 
out Doubt  however  they  had  out  on  the  Occasion  between  4  and 
5000  of  their  choicest  Troops  &  expected  to  have  drove  us  off 
the  Island.  They  are  greatly  mortified  at  their  Disappointment  & 
have  ever  since  been  exceedingly  modest  &  quiet  not  having  even 


Appendix.  5  5 

patroling  Parties  beyond  their  Lines — I  lay  within  a  Mile  of  them 
the  Night  after  the  battle  &  never  heard  Men  work  harder  I  believe 
they  thought  we  intended  to  pursue  our  Advantage  &  Attack  them 
next  Morning. 

If  I  only  had  a  Pair  of  Pistols  I  coud  I  think  have  shot  a  Rascal 
or  two  I  am  sure  I  would  at  least  have  shot  a  puppy  of  an  Officer  I 
found  slinking  off  in  the  heat  of  the  Action. 

[N.  Y.  City  during  the  American  Revolution,  published  by  the  N.  Y.  Mercantile 
Library  Association.] 

J 


GEN.    GREENE    TO    NICHOLAS    COOKE,  GOVERNOR    OF    RHODE    ISLAND. 

Camp  at  Harlem  Heights, 
September  17.  1776. 

I  suppose  you  have  heard  of  the  retreat  from  Long-Island,  and  the 
evacuation  of  New  York.  The  retreats  were  both  judicious  and 
necessary,  our  numbers  being  very  insufficient  to  hold  such  an  extent 
of  ground.  His  Excellency  had  proposed  to  evacuate  the  city  and 
suburbs  of  New  York  some  time  before  the  enemy  made  their  last 
landing,  and  had  the  Quartermaster-General  been  able  to  furnish  the 
necessary  wagons  to  remove  the  stores  and  baggage,  the  retreat 
would  have  been  effected  in  good  order,  had  the  enemy  delayed 
their  landing  twenty-four  hours  longer.  Almost  all  the  old  standing 
regiment  was  drawn  out  of  the  city,  in  order  to  oppose  the  enemy  at 
Hell-Gate,  where  they  made  an  appearance  of  a  very  large  body  of 
troops,  and  movements  as  if  they  intended  a  landing. 

We  made  a  miserable,  disorderly  retreat  from  New  York,  owing  to 
the  disorderly  conduct  of  the  Militia,  who  ran  at  the  appearance  of 
the  enemy's  advance  guard  ;  this  was  General  Fellows' s  brigade. 
They  struck  a  panick  into  the  troops  in  the  rear,  and  Fellows' s  and 
Parson s's  whole  brigade  ran  away  from  about  fifty  men,  and  left  his 
Excellency  on  the  ground  within  eighty  yards  of  the  enemy,  so  vexed 
at  the  infamous  conduct  of  the  troops,  that  he  sought  death  rather 
than  life. 

The  retreat  was  on  the  14th  of  this  instant,  from  New  York  ;  most 
of  the  troops  got  off,  but  we  lost  a  prodigious  deal  of  baggage  and 
stores.  On  the  16th  we  had  a  skirmish  at  Harlem  Heights  :  a  party 
of  about  a  thousand  came  and  attacked  our  advance  post.  They 
met  with  a  very  different  kind  of  reception  from  what  they  did  the 
4 


56  Appendix. 

day  before.  The  fire  continued  about  an  hour,  and  the  enemy 
retreated  ;  our  people  pursued  them,  and  by  the  spirited  conduct  of 
General  Putnam  and  Colonel  Reed  the  Adjutant  General,  our  people 
advanced  upon  the  plain  ground  without  cover,  and  attacked  them 
and  drove  them  back.  His  Excellency  sent  and  ordered  a  timely 
retreat  to  our  advanced  post,  for  he  discovered  or  concluded  the 
enemy  would  send  a  large  reinforcement,  as  their  main  body  lay  near 
by.  I  was  sick  when  the  army  retreated  from  Long  Island,  which 
by  the  by,  was  the  best  effected  retreat  I  ever  read  or  heard  of,  con- 
sidering the  difficulty  of  the  retreat.  The  Army  now  remains  quiet, 
but  expect  an  attack  every  day.  Col.  Varnum's  and  Col.  Hitch- 
cock's regiments  were  in  the  last  action,  and  behaved  nobly,  but 
neither  of  the  Colonels  was  with  them,  both  being  absent — one  sick, 
the  other  taking  care  of  the  sick. 

[Force's  American  Archives.] 


LEWIS    MORRIS,    JR.,    TO    HIS    FATHER. 

Headquarters,  Septbr  18th  177b. 
Monday  morning  an  advanced  party,  Colonel  Knowlton's  regi- 
ment, was  attacked  by  the  enemy  upon  a  height  a  little  to  the  south- 
west of  Days' s  Tavern,  and  after  opposing  them  bravely  and  being 
overpowered  by  their  numbers  they  were  forced  to  retreat,  and  the 
enemy  advanced  upon  the  top  of  the  hill  opposite  to  that  which  lies 
before  Dayes's  door,  with  a  confidence  of  Success,  and  after  rallying 
their  men  by  a  bugle  horn  and  resting  themselves  a  little  while,  they 
descended  the  hill  with  an  intention  to  force  our  flanking  party, 
which  extended  from  the  North  river  to  the  before  mentioned  hill,  but 
they  received  so  warm  a  fusilade  from  that  flank  and  a  party  that 
went  up  the  hill  to  flank  them  and  cut  off  their  retreat,  that  they 
were  forced  to  give  way.  Their  loss  is  something  considerable, 
ours,  about  forty  wounded  and  twelve  killed.  The  impression  it 
made  upon  the  minds  of  our  people  is  a  most  signal  victory  to  us, 
and  the  defeat  a  considerable  mortification  to  them. 

[From  the  original  in  possession  of  Harry  M.  Morris.] 


Appendix.  57 


COL.    G.    S.    SILLIMAN    TO    HIS    WIFE. 

Harlem  Heights, 

17  Sept.  1776.  2  o'cl  p.m. 

Yesterday  at  7  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  were  alarmed  with  the 
sight  of  a  considerable  number  of  the  enemy  on  the  Plains  below  us 
about  a  mile  distant. — Our  Brigades  which  form  a  line  across  the 
Island  where  I  am  were  immediately  ordered  under  arms — but  as  the 
enemy  did  not  immediately  advance  we  grounded  our  arms  &  took 
spades  &  shovels  &  went  to  work  &  before  night  had  thrown  up  lines 
across  the  Island — There  was  nothing  before  but  three  little  redoubts 
in  about  a  mile  &  we  are  at  work  this  day  in  strengthening  them. 
But  yesterday  a  little  before  noon  we  heard  a  strong  firing  about  half 
a  mile  below  us  in  the  woods  near  where  we  had  two  Brigades  lying 
as  an  advanced  guard.  The  enemy  in  a  large  body  advanced  in  the 
woods  a  little  before  12  o'cl  &  began  a  heavy  fire  on  those  two  Bri- 
gades who  maintained  the  fire  obstinately  for  some  time  &  then  they 
were  reinforced  by  several  regiments  &  the  fire  continued  very  heavy 
from  the  musketry  &  from  field  pieces  about  two  hours — in  which 
time  our  people  drove  the  regulars  back  from  post  to  post  about  a 
mile  &  a  half  &  then  left  them  pretty  well  satisfied  with  their  dinner 
since  which  they  have  been  very  quiet.  Our  loss  on  this  occasion 
by  the  best  information  is  about  25  killed  &  40  or  50  wounded.  The 
enemy  by  the  best  accounts  have  suffered  much  more  than  we. 

A  prisoner  we  have  I  am  told  says  that  Genl.  Howe  himself  com- 
manded the  regular  &  Genl.  Washington  &  Genl.  Putnam  were  both 
with  our  Troops.  They  have  found  now  that  when  we  meet  them  on 
equal  ground  we  are  not  a  set  of  people  that  will  run  from  them — 
but  that  they  have  now  had  a  pretty  good  drubbing,  tho'  this  was  an 
action  between  but  a  small  party  of  the  army. 

[Notes  to  Jones's  History  of  New  York  during  the  American  Revolution,  now 
in  press  for  the  N.  Y.  Historical  Society.] 


GEN.    KNOX    TO    HIS    BROTHER    WILLIAM    KNOX. 

Heights  of  Harlem,  8  miles  from  N.  York,  Sept.  23,  1776. 
The  affair  of  last  Monday  has  had  some  good  consequences  toward 
raising  the  peoples  spirits — they  find  that  if  they  stick  to  these  mighty 
men  they  will  run  as  fast  as  other  people.     Our  people  pursued  them 


58  Appendix. 

nearly  two  miles — about  1,500  of  our  people  engaged  of  the  enemy 
about  the  same  number  viz.,  the  2d.  Battalion  light  infantry,  the 
Highlands  or  42d.  6th  Battalion  of  Grenadiers  and  some  Hessians. 
The  grounds  on  which  we  now  possess  are  strong.  I  think  we  shall 
defend  them — if  we  dont  I  hope  God  will  punish  us  both  in  this  World 
and  the  World  to  come  if  the  fault  is  ours. 

[Knox  Papers,  N.   Y.   Historic  Genealogical  Society.] 


MAJOR   NICHOLAS     FISH    TO    JOHN     McKESSON     SECRETARY    N.    Y.    CON- 
VENTION. 

KlNGSBRIDGE,    19th  Septr  1 776. 

Our  Retreat  from  the  City,  you  no  Doubt  must  have  heard  of  er'e 
this.     This  Phoenomenon  took  Place  on  Sunday  Morn?  last  when  our 
Brigade,  who  were  the  last  in  the  City  excepting  the  Guards  marched 
to  the  lines  back  of  Stuyvesants,  where  from  the  Movements  of  the 
Enemy  it  was  evident  was  the  determination  for  landing. — The  Ene- 
my's Ships  of  War  being  drawn  up  in  line  of  Battle  parallel  to  the 
shore  the  Troops  to  the  amount  of  about  4,000  being  embarked  in 
flat   bottom  Boats,  and  the  Boats  paraded — A  Cannonade  from  the 
Ships  began,  which   far   exceeded   my  Ideas,  and  which   seemed   to 
infuse  a  Panic  thro'  the  whole  of  our  Troops,  especially  the  Connec- 
ticut Troops  who  unfortunately  were  posted  upon  the  left,  where  the 
Enemy  landed  without   the   least  opposition  ;   for  upon   their  near 
approach  to  the  Shore  these  dastardly  sons  of  Cowardice  deserted 
their  Lines  &  fled  in  the  greatest  Disorder  &  precipitature  &  I  know 
not  but  I  may  venture  to  say  Infected  those  upon  the  Right,  who 
speedily   copied  their   vile  conduct  &   then  pursued   them  in  their 
flight.     I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  Panic  seized  as  well  Officers  (& 
those  of  distinction)  as  Men,  in  so  much  that  it  magnified  the  Num- 
ber of  the  Enemy  to  thrice  the  Reality  &  generated  substances  from 
their  own  shadows,  which  greatly  assisted  them  in  their  flight  to  the 
Heights  above  Harlem. 

We  are  now  in  possession  of  the  ground  from  the  Heights  of  Har- 
lem to  the  Heights  of  West  Chester,  our  advance  Guard  is  posted  a 
Mile  from  our  Lines ;  here  it  was  that  our  brave  and  heroic  Mary- 
landers,  Virginians,  &c.  made  a  Noble  &  resolute  stand  against  the 
Efforts  of  the  Enemy  on  Monday  the  16th  drove  them  back,  pur- 


Appendix.  59 

sued,  and  forced  them  to  retire — The  Conduct  of  our  Troops  on 
this  occasion  was  so  counter  to  that  of  some  others  the  preceding 
Day  as  nearly  to  form  a  Counterprise. 

Our  troops  were  in  a  most  desponding  Condition  before,  but  now 
are  in  good  spirits. 

P.S.  In  the  action  of  the  16th  we  lost  about  17  killed  and  I 
believe  as  many  wounded.  It  is  remarkable  that  all  our  killed  were 
shot  thro'  the  Head  which  induces  the  belief  that  they  were  first 
taken  Prisoners  &  then  massacred. — The  Number  of  the  Enemy 
killed  and  wounded  is  not  yet  known,  but  it  is  generally  thought, 
they  far  exceed  us. 

[Historical  Magazine,  Second  Series,  III.,  33.] 


JOHN    GOOCH    TO    THOMAS    FAYERWEATHER,    MERCHANT    AT    BOSTON. 

New  Jersey.    Fort  Constitution,  Sept.  23.  1776. 
I  know  you  must  be  anxious  for  the  certainty  of  events  of  which 
you  can  have  at  that  distance  but  a  confused  account,  as  I  was  on 
the  spot  will  endeavor  to  give  you  as  Concise  &  Just  account  as  pos- 
sible ;  on  the  15th  Inst  we  evacuated  New  York  &  took  all  stores  of 
every  kind  out  of  the  City,  and  took  Possession  of  the  hights  of  Haer- 
lem  eight  miles  from  the  City,  the  Enemy  encamp' d  about  two  miles 
from  us;  on  the  16th  the  Enemy  advanced  and  took  Possession  of  a 
hight  on  our  Right  Flank  abl  half  a  mile  Distance  with  about  3000 
men,   a  Party  from   our  Brigade   of  150  men   who   turned   out   as 
Volunteers  under  the  command  of  Lieut.  Col°  Crary  of  the  Regm* 
I  belong  to  were  ordered  out  if  possible  to  dispossess  them,  in  about 
20  minutes  the  Engagement  began  with  as  terrible  a  fire  as  ever  1 
heard,  when  Orders  came  for  the  whole  Brigade  immediately  to  march 
to   support   the  first  detachment,  the   Brigade  Consisted  of  abl  900 
men,  we  immediately  formed  in  front  of  the  Enemy  and  march' d  up 
in  good  order  through  their  fire,  which  was  incessant   till  within  70 
yards,  when  we  Engaged  them  in  that  situation,  we  engaged  them  for 
one  hour  and  eight  minits,  when  the  Enemy  Broke  &  Ran,  we  pur- 
sued them   to   the  next  hights,  when  we  were  ordered  to  Retreat. 
Our  loss  does  not  exceed  in  killed  and  wounded  twenty  five  men, 
the  loss   of  the   Enemy  was  very  considerable   but  cannot  be  ascer- 
tained, as  we  observed  them  to  carry  of  their  dead  and  wounded  the 
whole   time   of  the   Engagement,  they  left  a  Number  of  killed  and 


6o  Appendix. 

wounded  on  the  Field  of  Battle  &  a  great  number  of  small  Armes, 
the  great  Superiority  of  Numbers  and  every  other  advantage  the 
Enemy  had,  when  considered  makes  the  Victory  Glorious,  and  tho' 
but  over  a  part  of  their  Army  yet  the  Consequences  of  it  are  at- 
tended with  advantages  very  great,  as  they  immediately  quited  the 
hights  all  round  us  and  have  not  been  troublesome  since,  our  people 
behaved  with  the  greatest  Spirit,  and  the  New  England  men  have 
gained  the  first  Lawrells.  I  received  a  slight  wound  in  the  Anckle 
at  the  first  of  the  Engagement  but  never  quited  the  Field  during  the 
Engagement.  I'm  now  Ready  to  give  them  the  second  part  when- 
ever they  have  an  appetite,  as  I'm  convinced  whenever  stir  from  their 
chips  we  shall  drubb  them. 

[N.  E.  Historical  and  Genealogical  Register,  XXX.,  334.] 


EXTRACT    OF     A     LETTER      FROM    AN     OFFICER     IN    OUR    ARMY    TO    HIS 
FRIEND    IN    THIS    TOWN,    DATED    NEW    HARLEM,    SEPT.     2  1,     1 776. 

New  London,  Sept  27. 
Last  Monday  the  Enemy  landed  at  New  York,  under  Cover  of 
their  Shipping,  when  our  whole  Army  retreated  to  this  Place.  As  for 
myself  I  was  out  on  a  scouting  Party  as  far  as  Hunt's  Point — and  on 
hearing  the  Cannon  I  immediately  returned  to  the  Regiment  of  Ran- 
gers, but  too  late  to  go  ii.to  the  City — Well,  on  Monday  Morning 
the  General  ordered  us  to  go  and  take  the  Enemy's  advanced 
Guard  ;  accordingly  we  set  out  just  before  Day,  and  found  where 
they  were  ;  at  Day-brake  we  were  discovered  by  the  Enemy,  who 
were  400  strong,  and  we  were  120— they  march'd  up  within  six 
Rods  of  us,  and  there  form'd  to  give  us  Battle  which  we  were  ready 
for  ;  and  Colonel  Knowlton  gave  Orders  to  fire,  which  we  did,  and 
stood  theirs  till  we  perceived  they  were  getting  their  Flank-Guards 
round  us.  After  giving  them  eight  Rounds  a  Piece  the  Colonel  gave 
Orders  for  Retreating,  which  we  performed  very  well,  without  the  Loss 
of  a  Man  while  Retreating,  though  we  lost  about  10  while  in  Action. 
We  retreated  two  Miles  and  a  Half  and  then  made  a  Stand,  and  sent 
orT  for  a  Reinforcement,  which  we  soon  received,  and  drove  the  Dogs 
near  three  Miles. — My  poor  Colonel,  in  the  second  Attack,  was  shot 
just  by  my  Side,  the  Ball  entered  the  small  of  his  Back — I  took  hold 
of  him,  asked  him  if  he  was  badly  wounded  ?  he  told  me  he  was  ;  but, 
says  he,  I  do  not  value  my  Life  if  we  do  but  get  the  Day :  I  then 


Appendix.  6 1 

ordered  two  Men  to  carry  him  off.  He  desired  me  by  all  Means  to 
keep  up  this  Flank.  He  seemed  as  unconcern'd  and  calm  as  tho' 
nothing  had  happened  to  him.  In  the  Spot  where  the  Colonel  was 
wounded,  at  least  within  4  Rods  round  him,  lay  15  or  16  of  the 
Enemy  dead,  with  5  or  6  of  our  People.  Several  Deserters  say  we 
made  great  Havock  among  them.  The  next  Day  we  went  to  bury 
our  Dead,  and  found  near  a  Dozen  with  their  Heads  split  open  by 
the  Hessians. 

[Connecticut  Gazette,  Sept.  27,  1776.] 


EXTRACT     OF     A     LETTER    TO     A     GENTLEMAN     IN     ANNAPOLIS,    DATED 
HEADQUARTERS,    SEPT.     1 7,     I  7  76. 

We  are  now  encamped  between  York  and  King's  Bridge,  on  very 
advantageous  heights,  and  have  formed  our  lines  from  the  North 
River  to  a  Creek  that  makes  out  of  the  East  River,  running  up  to 
King's  Bridge. 

Soon  after  we  came  to  New  York,  there  was  a  council  held  by  the 
General  Officers,  and  the  question  was  put,  whether  New  York  was 
tenable  against  the  King's  forces.     It  was  carried  in  the  negative. 

Three  days  ago  the  whole  of  our  troops  evacuated  New  York  ; 
and  the  day  before  yesterday  the  Kings  troops  landed  about  three 
miles  below  this,  where  there  were  two  brigades  stationed,  who  aban- 
doned their  posts  with  precipitation. 

Yesterday  morning  the  Regulars  came  within  half  a  mile  of  our 
lines,  and  made  a  stand.  A  few  of  our  scouts,  who  were  out, 
attacked  and  drove  them  off.  In  two  hours  after,  two  thousand  of 
them  returned.  Gen.  Beall  sent  out  three  companies  of  Riflemen, 
under  the  command  of  Major  Mantz,  who  attacked  them.  Immedi- 
ately Gen.  Washington  reinforced  with  the  remainder  of  our  brigade, 
together  with  Gen.  Weedon's  regiment  from  Virginia,  Major  Price's 
three  independent  companies,  and  one  regiment  of  Rhode  Islanders. 
Never  did  troops  go  to  the  field  with  more  cheerfulness  and  alacrity ;. 
when  there  began  a  heavy  fire  on  both  sides.  It  continued  about 
one  hour,  when  our  brave  Southern  troops  dislodged  them  from  their 
posts.  The  enemy  rallied,  and  our  men  beat  them  the  second  time. 
They  rallied  again  ;  our  troops  drove  them  the  third  time,  and  were 
rushing  on  them,  but  the  enemy  had  got  on  an  eminence,  and  our 
troops  were  ordered  to  retreat,  the  General  considering  there  might 


62  Appendix. 

be  a  large  number  of  the  enemy  behind  the  hill  concealed  ;  which 
was  the  case.  We  were  informed  by  a  prisoner  that  our  men  took, 
there  were  about  eight  or  ten  thousand  concealed. 

From  the  number  of  the  enemy  that  I  saw  lay  on  the  field  dead 
and  wounded,  I  think  their  loss  must  be  three  or  four  times  ours. 
I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  get  a  full  account  of  our  loss,  only  of  our 
brigade,  which  is  as  follows  :  Capt.  Low  wounded  through  both  his 
thighs.  Twelve  privates  wounded,  and  three  missing.  Major  Leitch, 
of  Col.  Weedon's  regiment  received  three  balls  through  his  belly. 
More  is  the  pity,  for  never  was  a  braver  hero.  He  stood  the  field, 
with  the  greatest  bravery,  till  the  third  shot,  when  he  was  obliged  to 
fall.  He  appears  to  be  in  good  spirits.  The  Doctors  are  of  opin- 
ion that  he  will  recover.  Col.  Knowlton  from  Boston,  killed  in  the 
field  who  distinguished  himself  at  Bunker's  Hill,  as  well  as  in  this 
engagement.     He  will  be  interred  to-day  with  all  the  honours  of  war. 

From  our  present  situation,  it  is  firmly  my  opinion  we  shall  give 
them  a  genteel  drubbing,  in  case  the  Yankees  will  fight  with  as  much 
spirit  as  the  Southern  troops.  As  near  as  I  can  collect,  our  loss, 
killed,  and  wounded,  and  taken,  amounts  to  fifty  men.  We  expect 
every  hour  that  the  general  engagement  will  come  on  ;  and  if  we 
prove  successful,  the  campaign  will  be  settled  for  this  present  year. 
Gen.  Washington  gave  great  applause  to  our  Maryland  troops,  for 
their  gallant  behaviour  yesterday. 

[Force's  American  Archives.] 


COL.  SMALLWOOD  TO  THE  CONVENTION  OF  MARYLAND. 

Camp  of  the  Maryland  Regulars,  Head-Quarters,  Oct.  12,  1776. 
General  Washington  [Sept.  15]  expressly  sent  and  drew  our  regi- 
ment from  its  brigade,  to  march  down  towards  New  York,  to  cover 
the  retreat,  and  to  defend  the  baggage,  with  direction  to  take  posses- 
sion of  an  advantageous  eminence  near  the  enemy,  upon  the  main 
road,  where  we  remained  under  arms  the  best  part  of  the  day,  till 
Sargent's  brigade  came  in  with  their  baggage,  who  were  the  last 
troops  coming  in,  upon  which  the  enemy  divided  their  main  body 
into  two  columns,  one  filing  off  on  the  North  River,  endeavoured  to 
flank  and  surround  us ;  we  had  orders  to  retreat  in  good  order, 
which  was  done,  our  corps  getting  within  the  lines  a  little  after  dusk. 


Appendix.  63 

The  next  day,  about  1000  of  them  made  an  attempt  upon  our  lines, 
and  were  first  attacked  by  the  brave  Col.  Knovvlton  of  New  England, 
who  lost  his  life  in  the  action,  and  the  Third  Virginia  Regiment, 
who  were  immediately  joined  by  three  independent  companies  under 
Major  Price,  and  some  part  of  the  Maryland  Flying  Camp,  who  drove 
them  back  to  their  lines,  it  is  supposed  with  the  loss  of  400  men  killed 
and  wounded  ;  our  party  had  about  100  killed  and  wounded,  of  the 
former  only  15.  Since  which  we  have  been  viewing  each  other  at  a 
distance,  and  strongly  entrenching  till  the  9th  of  October,  when  three 
of  their  men-of-war  passed  up  the  North  river  above  King's  Bridge, 
under  a  heavy  cannonade  from  our  batteries,  which  has^  effectually 
cut  off  our  communication,  by  water,  with  Albany. 

[Ridgeley's  Annals  of  Annapolis,  p.  261.] 


CAP.    BEATTY    OF    THE     MARYLAND    LINE,    TO    HIS    FATHER    COL.    WIL- 
LIAM   BEATTY,    FREDRICKTOWN. 

Camp  near  Kings  Bridge,  Septr  18th  1776. 
I  have  something  worth  telling  you  of  what  happened  this  week. 
Last  Sunday  the  Enemy  landed  about  3  miles  below  us,  and  at  the 
sight  of  150  of  them  one  brigade  &  a  half  of  New  England  troops 
ran  away  in  the  most  precipitated  manner  &  chief  of  them  lost  their 
baggage  ;  if  they  had  stood  their  ground  they  might  have  cut  them 
off.  But  by  their  landing  they  surrounded  many  of  our  troops  in 
York  which  had  no  time  to  get  out  But  they  have  a  strong  fort 
near  New  York  where  they  are  &  have  3  months  provision  &  am- 
munition a  plenty,  &  the  commander  declares  that  he  will  not  sur- 
render while  he  has  either.  On  Monday  last  the  enemy  thought  to 
drive  our  troops  farther,  sallyed  out  &  were  attact  by  Major  Mantz 
with  the  3  rifle  companys  of  our  battalion  under  his  command  and 
Major  Price  with  3  of  the  independent  companys  of  Maryland 
troops  &  3  other  companys  of  Maryland  Flying  Camp  &  a  battalion 
of  Virginians  &  some  Northern  troops  the  attack  was  very  sharp  on 
both  sides  for  one  hour  &  a  half  &  then  the  enemy  retreated  one 
mile  &  a  half  to  their  lines — In  all  the  action  we  lost  but  about  20 
men  killed  &  about  as  many  wounded — among  the  dead  is  one  Col- 
onel of  the  Northern  troops.  The  men  all  behaved  with  much 
bravery.     In  Capt  Goods  company  there  was  but  two  men  wounded, 


64  Appendix. 

Capt  Reynolds  one,  Capt  Grooh  two,  one  of  which  is  the  blind  Cup- 
pers son  in  Fredktown.  The  other  learnt  the  hatters  trade  with 
Major  Price,  his  wound  is  in  the  breast,  the  other  on  the  back  of  his 
arm  above  the  joint  of  his  wrist  &  so  down  to  his  fingers,  the  bone  is 
not  broke  Our  Company  lay  out  from  our  tents  from  Sunday  morn- 
ing till  Tuesday  night 

[Historical  Magazine,  Second  Series,  I.,  147.] 


MAJOR    SAMUEL    SHAW   TO    HIS    FATHER    FRANCIS    SHAW. 

Fort  Washington,  Sept.  18.  1776. 
We  are  now  in  a  much  more  proper  place  for  carrying  on  the  war 
than  when  in  New  York,  as  the  enemy's  ships  can  now  be  of  no 
service  to  them  in  attacking.  The  day  before  yesterday  we  had  a 
proof  of  this,  when  a  part  of  them  attempted  to  force  a  passage 
through  some  woods,  and  to  take  possession  of  a  number  of  heights, 
but  were  repulsed  with  loss  by  an  equal  if  not  inferiour  body  of  our 
troops  who  behaved  with  as  much  bravery  as  men  possibly  could. 
[Shaw's  Journals,  p.  20.] 


SAMUEL    CHASE    TO    GEN.    GATES. 

Philadelphia,  September  21.  1776. 
On  this  Day  Week  the  Enemy  landed  a  Body  of  forces  at  Turtle 
Bay  (after  a  severe  Cannonade  from  their  Ships  in  the  East  River  to 
scour  the  Country  and  cover  their  Landing)  our  Troops  posted  in 
Lines  thrown  up  to  oppose  their  Landing  abandoned  them  at  the 
first  appearance  of  the  Enemy,  in  the  utmost  precipitation  and  Con- 
fusion :  Two  Brigades,  commanded  by  Generals  Parsons  and  Fel- 
lows, were  ordered  to  support  them,  they  also  fled  in  every  Direc- 
tion, without  firing  a  single  Shot,  notwithstanding  the  Exertions  of 
their  Generals  to  form  them,  and  oh,  disgraceful,  on  the  appearance 
of  only  about  sixty  or  seventy  of  the  Enemy  !  by  this  infamous  Con- 
duct We  lost  a  great  part  of  our  Baggage  and  most  of  our  heavy 
Cannon  which  had  been  left  at  N  York — our  army  retreated,  and 
possessed  themselves  of  the  Heights  of  Harlem  ;  our  Headquar- 
ters at  Roger  Morris's  house.  On  Monday  last  the  Enemy  appeared 
in  the  plains,  2J  Miles  from  the   Heights,  about  400   under  General 


Appendix.  65 

Leslie  A  Skirmish  began  between  them  and  a  Party  of  Volunteers 
from  several  New  England  regiments  commanded  by  Col°  Knolton. 
our  People  were  supported  by  Companies  from  a  Virginia  Battalion 
and  from  two  Militia  Maryland  Regiments.  The  Enemy  were 
obliged  to  retreat,  with  the  Loss  of  about  100  killed  and  prisoners- 
Col0  Knolton,  a  brave  officer,  was  killed.  Major  Leitch  of  Mayd 
was  wounded  and  despaired  of.  The  Enemies  main  Army  is  now 
encamped  between  7  and  8  Miles  Stones  General  Howe's  Head 
Quarters  at  one  Mr  Apthorp's. 

[Gates  Papers  :   N.  Y.  Historical  Society.] 

J 

AMERICAN    GENERAL    ORDERS. 

Headquarters,  i6,h  September,  1776. 
(Parole,   Beall)  (Countersign,  Maryland) 

The  arrangement  for  this  Night  upon  the  heights  commanding  the 
the  hollow  way  from  the  North  River  to  the  Main  Road  leading 
from  New  York  to  Kingsbridge.  Gen.  Clinton  to  form  next  to  the 
North  River,  and  extend  to  the  left.  Gen.  Scott's  Brigade  next  to 
Gen.  Clinton's.  Lieut.  Col.  Sayer  of  Col.  Griffith's  Regiment,  with 
the  three  Companies  intended  for  a  reinforcement  to  day  to  form  upon 
the  left  of  Scott's  Brigade.  Gen.  Nixon's  &  Col.  Sergeants  Division, 
Col.  Weedon's  &  Major  Price's  Regiments,  are  to  retire  to  their 
Quarters  and  refresh  themselves,  but  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness 
to  turn  out  at  a  minutes  warning.  Gen.  McDougall  to  establish 
proper  Guards  against  his  Brigade  upon  the  heights  from  Morris's 
House,  to  Gen.  McDougalls  Camp,  to  furnish  proper  Guards  to  pre 
vent  a  surprise,  not  less  than  twenty  Men  from  each  Regiment,  Gen. 
Putnam  commands  upon  the  right  flank  to  Night,  Gen.  Spencer  from 
McDougall's  Brigade  up  to  Morris's  House.  Should  the  Enemy  at- 
tempt to  force  the  pass  to-Night,  Gen.  Putnam  is  to  apply  to  Gen. 
Spencer  for  a  reinforcement. 


Headquarters,  Sept.  17,  1776. 
(Parole,  Leitch)  (Countersign,  Virginia) 

The  General  most  heartily  thanks  the  Troops  commanded  yester- 
day by  Major  Leitch,  who  first  advanced  on  the  Enemy,  and  the  others 
who  so  resolutely  supported  them,  the  Behaviour  Yesterday  is  such 
a   Contrast  to  that  of  some  Troops   the  day  before,  as  must  shew 


66  Appendix. 

what  may  be  done  where  Officers  and  Soldiers  will  exert  themselves. 
Once  more  therefore  the  General  calls  upon  Officers  and  Men  to  act 
up  to  the  Noble  Cause  in  which  they  are  engaged,  and  support  the 
Honour  and  Liberties  of  their  Country. 

The  Gallant  and  brave  Col.  Knowlton  who  was  an  Honour  to 
any  Country,  having  fallen  yesterday  while  gallantly  fighting,  Capt. 
Brown  is  to  take  the  Command  of  the  Party  lately  Commanded  by 
Col.  Knowlton ;  Officers  &  Men  are  to  obey  him  accordingly. 

The  loss  of  the  Enemy  yesterday  undoubtedly  would  have  been 
much  greater,  if  the  orders  of  the  Commander  in  Chief  had  not  in 
some  instance  been  contradicted  by  some  inferior  Officers,  who, 
however  well  they  may  mean,  ought  not  to  presume  to  direct.  It  is 
therefore  Ordered  that  no  Officer  Commanding  a  Party,  and  having 
received  Orders  from  the  Commander  in  Chief,  depart  from  them 
without  Counter  Orders  from  the  same  Authority,  and  as  many  may 
otherwise  err  thro'  ignorance,  the  Army  is  now  acquainted  that  the 
General  Orders  are  delivered  by  the  Adjutant  General,  one  of  the 
Aid  de  Camps,  Mr  Tilghman,  or  Col.  Moylan  the  Quartermaster 
General. 

[MS.  Orderly  Book,  McDougalFs  Brigade,  N.  Y.  Historical  Society.] 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  MS.  LITERARY  DIARY  AND  JOURNAL  OF  OC- 
CURRENCES KEPT  BY  EZRA  STILES,  D.D.,  NOW  IN  THE  LIBRARY 
OF    YALE    COLLEGE. 

Nov.  10,  1776.  General  Greene's  letter  4th  October  speaking  of 
the  Enemy's  Landing  near  Turtle  Bay  &  tak'g  possess11  of  the  City 
ofN.  Y.  15th  Septr.  "The  Panic  that  struck  Gen.  Fellows's  & 
communicated  itself  to  Gen.  Parsons'  Brigade  disgraced  the  last 
Retreat.  The  2  Brigades  run  away  from  about  40  or  fifty  men,  and 
left  Gen1  Washington  standing  alone  within  an  hundred  yards  of  the 
Enemy.  This  disagreeable  circumstance  made  the  last  Retreat  very 
disgraceful.  The  Enemy  next  day  at  Harlem  Heights,  flushed  with 
the  successes  of  the  day  before  approached  and  attacked  our  Lines, 
where  I  had  the  honor  to  command.  The  action  or  rather  skirmish 
lasted  about  two  hours  :  our  people  beat  the  Enemy  off  the  Ground. 
Col.  Varnum  &  Col.  Hitchcocks  Reg1  behaved  exceedingly  spirited 
and  all  the  officers  that  were  with  the  Regiments.  The  Colonels 
were  both  absent.  Had  all  the  Colonies  good  officers,  there  is  no 
danger  of  the  Troops  :  never  was  Troops  that  would  stand  in   the 


Appendix.  67 

Field  longer  than  the  American  Soldiery.  If  the  officers  were  as 
good  as  the  men  and  had  only  a  few  months  to  form  the  troops  by 
Discipline,  America  might  bid  Defiance  to  the  whole  World.  Gen. 
Putnam  and  the  Adj*  General  were  in  the  Action  and  behaved 
nobly."     End  G.  Green's  Lett. 

It  is  said  in  Gen1  Mifflins  Lett,  of  abot  23  Oct.  that  a  Deserter 
informs,  a  canon  shot  killed  a  Centinel  and  shattered  Gen1  Howes 
Leg  so  that  his  Life  is  doubtful. 

Extracts  from  Philada  Letters.  Wm  Ellery  Esq  "  Phila  Oct  5, 
1776.  Gen1  Mifflin  told  me  that  our  men  behaved  bravely  in  the 
action  (16  Sept)  That  we  lost  about  one  hundred  killed  and 
wounded  and  beat  the  Enemy  from  the  field  of  Battle  &  the 
account  he  could  rely  on  with  about  400  killed  and  wounded." 

Phil*  21  Sept.  "The  Enemy's  Party  consisted  of  Two  Battalions 
and  three  companies." 

Phila  Oct.  11.  "  Some  of  our  people  did,  indeed  run  from  the 
Enemy  when  they  landed  at  Turtle  Bay  (Sept  15) — the  very  next 
day  some  of  those  very  men  fought  gallantly.  I  have  this  from 
Gen.  Mifflin  &  David  Hopkins,  who  saw  the  Fight ;  and  they  both 
agree  in  saying  that  the  last  (or  best)  account  they  could  get  & 
fr  the  appear"  of  the  field  of  Battle  the  Enemy  lost  killed  &  wounded 
in  that  fight  between  4  &  five  hundred  men  :  and  we  had  K.  &  W. 
the  former  says  about  100,  the  latter  says — not  so  many.  Our 
troops  drove  them  off  the  Field  when  the  numbers  on  both  sides  were 
equal. — at  present  a  defensive  war  seems  to  be  the  most  prudent." 

Sept.  24  1776.  This  morning  ar  Report  here  at  Dighton  of  a  bat- 
tle at  N.  York  last  Wednesday.  It  came  thus — One  Clark  of 
Swanzy  returned  there  yesterday  23  Sept  p.m.  from  Gov.  Trumbll 
(to  whom  he  had  been  sent  on  business  about  some  Connecticut 
Fire  Arms.)  He  says  Gov.  Trumbull  read  him  his  Sons  Letter  from 
N.  York  giving  an  acco*  of  an  Action — that  the  Kings  Troops 
chiefly  Hessians  marched  out  of  the  City  and  attacked  us  about 
half  way  between  the  City  and  Kings  bridge  ;  that  we  fought  and 
repulsed  them ;  a  2d  Battle  since  Evacu11  of  N.  York. 

Sept  27,  1776.  Last  Evening  a  Post  came  into  Taunton  a  letter 
from  L*  Ephraim  Crossman  to  his  father — dated  N.  York  almost  to 
Kings  bri'ge  Sept  17  (N.  B.  tuesday)  1776 — *  *  *  *  "They 
attacked  us  next  day  (I  suppose  mondy  16  Sept)  &  I  turned  out 
volunteer  &  followed  them  and  we  won  the  ground  drove  them  till 
they  brought  their  ships  to  bear  on  us,  and  the  grape  shot  flew  thick 


68 


Appendix. 


eno'  for  once  But  very  few  in  our  Company  or  Brigade  has  got  a  rag 
but  what  they  have  on"  (Having  thrown  away  everything  in  the 
Rout  of  the  day  before). 

Oct.  18,  1776.  When  I  was  at  Fairfield  I  saw  Sloss  Hobart  Esq 
a  sensible  Gent.  &  a  member  of  the  New  York  Convention.  He 
gave  me  the  following  draught  of  the  Action  of  O  16  Sept  which 
began  near  the  14  m  Stone  &  ended  at  the  8  m  Stone. 


i 


/>?  \\Q/oM. 


?        i 


9 

J 

y 

X 

EXPLANATION. 

A.  The  North  Side  of  a  Hollow  way  where  the  Action  began. 

B.  Fence,  behind  which  the  Enemy  rallied  the  first  time. 

C.  Fence,  from  whence  our  People  attacked  the  Enemy  at  B.      150  yards  apart. 

D.  No  Field  pieces,  but  Virginia  Detachmt  enfiladed  the  Enemy. 

E.  Buckwheat  field,  where  the  Enemy  rallied  a  Second  time  &  an  action  ensued 
for  i£  hour  when  the  Enemy  fled  and  attempting  to  rally  in  an  orchard  at. 

F.  Were  so  closely  pursued,  that  they  stood  but  a  few  minutes  when  the  Rout 
became  general. 


Appendix.  69 

We  have  two  General  Clinton's  in  our  Army.  From  one  of  them 
who  was  in  the  Action  Mr.  Hobart  received  the  account.  Gen. 
Putnam  &  Gen.  Greene  commanded  in  the  Action  with  about  15  to 
eighteen  hundred  men,  the  Enemy  having  in  the  Action  from  30  to 
4500,  Gen.  Clinton  &  Gen.  Mifflin  were  present  in  the  Action  as  spec- 
tators. Gen.  Clinton  said  he  was  ordered  next  day  to  bury  the  dead 
left  on  the  field  and  buried  78  of  the  Enemy,  the  most  of  which  fell 
in  the  Buckwheat  Field.  He  judged  we  lost  120  killed  &  wounded 
— the  Enemy  400  killed  besides  wounded  :  but  phaps  more  probably 
less.  Mr  Hobart  saw  one  who  escaped  from  Harlem  who  told  him 
that  he  counted  190  wounded  of  the  Enemy  in  one  barn  &  no  in 
another,  so  300  wounded  &  this  not  all.  On  the  whole  we  fought 
well  in  this  action. 

Oct.  9.  1776.  Major  Lamb  of  N.  Y.  is  just  returned  from  his 
Captivity  *  *  *  He  also  told  me  that  an  officer  came  on  board 
on  Lds'dy  Evening  (15  Sept)  damming  the  Yankees  for  runaway 
cowards  &  storming  that  there  was  no  chance  to  fight  &  get  honor  & 
rise — he  was  in  the  Monday  Action  also  &  came  again  on  board  O 
Evening  cursing  &  damming  the  War,  saying  he  had  found  the 
Americans  would  fight  &  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  conquer  them. 


WM.    ELLERY   TO    NICHOLAS    COOKE,   GOVERNOR    OF    RHODE  ISLAND. 

Philadelphia  Octr  11th  1776. 

I  saw  General  Mifflin  lately,  and  he  informed  that  in  the  fight 
the  day  after  the  enemy  took  possession  of  New  York,  by  the  best 
accounts  he  could  get,  and  from  the  appearance  of  the  field  of  battle, 
they  lost  between  four  and  five  hundred  killed  and  wounded  ;  and 
that  we  lost  about  one  hundred  killed  and  wounded.  In  the  first 
part  of  this  account  Jared  Hopkins,  son  of  the  minister  in  Newport, 
who  saw  the  fight,  agrees  with  the  General,  but  says,  that  he  saw  our 
killed  and  wounded,  and  that  they  were  much  short  of  that  number. 
They  both,  too,  agree  that  some  of  our  men  who  had  behaved 
shamefully  the  day  before  fought  gallantly  there,  and  that  with  equal 
numbers  we  drove  the  enemy  from  the  field.  I  believe  they  think 
the  Americans  will  fight  notwithstanding  we  have  retreated  and 
retreated. 

General  Washington,  as  I  am  told,  played  off  a  pretty  manoeuvre 
the  other  day.     Determined   to  remove  the  grain  and  the  furniture 


70  Appendix. 

of  the  houses  from  Harlem,  he  drew  out  into  the  field  a  party  of 
seventeen  hundred.  The  enemy  turned  out  as  many.  They 
approached  within  three  hundred  yards  and  looked  at  each  other. 
While  they  were  thus  opposed  front  to  front,  our  wagons  carried  oft 
the  grain  and  furniture.  When  this  was  accomplished,  both  parties 
retired  within  their  lines.  It  is  said  that  our  men  preserved  very 
good  faces.  It  would  be  of  use  to  draw  out  our  men  in  battle  array 
frequently,  to  let  them  look  the  enemy  in  the  face,  and  have  frequent 
skirmishes  with  them. 

[Force's  American  Archives.] 


EXTRACT    OF    A    LETTER    FROM    HARLEM,  DATED    OCT.    3. 

"  Yesterday  morning  eleven  hundred  men  were  ordered  to  parade 
at  daylight,  to  bring  off  the  corn,  hay  &c  which  lay  on  Harlem  plains 
between  the  enemy  and  us.  This  property  has  lain  for  a  fortnight 
past  unmolested,  both  sides  looking  at  it,  and  laying  claim  to  it  until 
to  day,  when  it  was  brought  off  by  us.  A  covering  party  were  within 
musket  shot  of  the  enemy,  but  they  made  no  other  movements  than 
to  man  their  lines  ;  and  three  thousand  of  our  man  appearing,  struck 
their  tents,  expecting  an  attack.  Our  fatigue  party  finished  the  busi- 
ness, and  not  a  single  shot  was  fired.  These  plains  would  afford  an 
excellent  field  for  a  fight.  I  really  expected  an  action,  but  the 
enemy  declined  it. 

[Freeman's  Journal  or  N.  H.  Gazette,  Oct.  22,  1776.] 


FROM    GORDONS    HISTORY    OF    THE    AMERICAN   WAR. 

Sept.  16,  1776.  On  the  Monday  there  was  a  tolerable  skirmish 
between  two  battalions  of  light  infantry  and  highlanders,  and  three 
companies  of  Hessian  riflemen  commanded  by  Brigadier  Leslie,  and 
detachments  from  the  American  army  under  the  command  of  lieut. 
col.  Knolton  of  Connecticut  and  major  Leitch  of  Virginia.  The 
colonel  received  a  mortal  wound,  and  the  major  three  balls  through 
his  body,  but  is  likely  to  do  well.  Their  parties  behaved  with 
great  bravery,  and  being  supplied  with  fresh  troops,  beat  the  enemy 
fairly  from  the  field.  The  loss  of  the  Americans,  except  in  col. 
Knolton,  a  most  valuable  and  gallant  officer,  was  inconsiderable ; 


Appendix.  7 1 

that  of  the  enemy  between  80  and  100  wounded,  and  15  or  20  killed. 
This  little  advantage  inspirited  the  Americans  prodigiously.  They 
found  it  required  only  resolution  and  good  officers  to  make  an  enemy 
they  stood  too  much  in  dread  of,  give  way.*  The  men  will  fight  if 
led  on  by  good  officers,  and  as  certainly  run  away  if  commanded 
by  scoundrels.  Sunday  was  an  instance  of  the  last,  and  the  next 
day  a  confirmation  of  the  first  assertion.  On  Sunday,  the  officers, 
instead  of  heading  and  leading  the  men  on  to  attack  the  enemy 
when  landing,  where  the  first  to  scamper  off. 


FROM    MARSHALL S    LIFE    OF    WASHINGTON. 

Sept.  15,  1776.  Having  taken  possession  of  New  York,  Gen. 
Howe  stationed  a  few  troops  in  the  town  ;  and,  with  the  main  body 
of  his  army,  encamped  on  the  island,  near  the  American  lines.  His 
right  was  at  Horen's  Hook  on  the  East  river,  and  his  left  reached 
the  North  river  near  Bloomingdale  ;  so  that  his  encampment  extended 
quite  across  the  island,  which  is,  in  this  place  scarcely  two  miles 
wide  ;  and  both  his  flanks  were  covered  by  his  ships. 

The  strongest  point  of  the  American  lines  was  at  Kingsbridge, 
both  sides  of  which  had  been  carefully  fortified.  McGowan's  Pass 
and  Morris's  Heights  were  also  occupied  in  considerable  force,  and 
rendered  capable  of  being  defended  against  superior  numbers.  A 
strong  detachment  was  posted  in  an  entrenched  camp  on  the  heights 
Haerlem  within  about  a  mile  and  a  half  of  the  British  lines. 

The  present  position  of  the  armies  favoured  the  views  of  the 
American  General.  He  wished  to  habituate  his  soldiers,  by  a  series 
of  successful  skirmishes,  to  meet  the  enemy  in  the  field  ;  and  he  per- 
suaded himself  that  his  detachments,  knowing  a  strong  intrenched 
camp  to  be  immediately  in  their  rear,  would  engage  without  appre- 
hension, would  soon  display  their  native  courage,  and  would  speedily 
regain  the  confidence  they  had  lost. 

Opportunities  to  make  the  experiments  he  wished  were  soon 
afforded.  The  day  after  the  retreat  from  New  York,  the  British 
appeared  {Sept.  16)  in  considerable  force  in  the  plains  between  the 
two  camps  ;  and  the  General  immediately  rode  to  his  advanced  posts, 
in   order  to   make  in  person   such   arrangements  as  this  movement 

*  Gen.  Washington's  letter  to  Gen.  Gates. 


72  Appendix. 

might  require.  Soon  after  his  arrival,  Lieut  Col.  Knowlton  of  Con- 
necticut, who,  at  the  head  of  a  corps  of  rangers,  had  been  skirmish- 
ing with  this  party,  came  in,  and  stated  their  numbers  on  conjecture 
at  about  300  men,  the  main  body  being  concealed  in  a  wood. 

The  General  ordered  Col  Knowlton  with  his  rangers,  and  Major 
Leitch  with  three  companies  of  the  third  Virginia  regiment,  which 
had  joined  the  army  only  the  preceding  day,  to  gain  their  rear,  while 
he  amused  them  with  the  appearance  of  making  dispositions  to  attack 
their  front. 

This' plan  succeeded.  The  British  ran  eagerly  down  a  hill,  in 
order  to  possess  themselves  of  some  fences  and  bushes,  which  pre- 
sented an  advantageous  position  against  the  party  expected  in  front ; 
and  a  firing  commenced — but  at  too  great  a  distance  to  do  any  exe- 
cution. In  the  meantime  Colonel  Knowlton,  not  being  precisely 
acquainted  with  their  new  position,  made  his  attack  rather  on  their 
flank  than  rear,  and  a  warm  action  ensued. 

In  a  short  time,  Major  Leitch,  who  had  led  the  detachment  with 
great  intrepiditity,  was  brought  off  the  ground  mortally  wounded, 
having  received  three  balls  through  his  body  ;  and  soon  after  the  gal- 
lant Colonel  Knowlton  also  fell.  Not  discouraged  by  the  loss  of  their 
field  officers,  the  captains  maintained  their  ground,  and  continued 
the  action  with  great  animation.  The  British  were  reinforced  ;  and 
General  Washington  ordered  some  detachments  from  the  adjacent 
regiments  of  New  England  and  Maryland,  to  the  support  of  the  Ameri- 
cans. Thus  reinforced,  they  made  a  gallant  charge,  drove  the  enemy 
out  of  the  wood  into  the  plain,  and  were  pressing  him  still  farther, 
when  the  General  content  with  the  present  advantage,  called  back 
his  troops  to  their  intrenchments.* 

In  this  sharp  conflict,  the  loss  of  the  Americans,  in  killed  and 
wounded,  did  not  exceed  fifty  men.  The  British  lost  more  than 
double  that  number.  But  the  real  importance  of  the  affair  was 
derived  from  its  operation  on  the  spirits  of  the  whole  army.  It  was 
the  first  success  they  had  obtained  during  this  campaign  ;  and  its 
influence  was  very  discernible.  To  give  it  the  more  effect,  the  parole 
next  day  was  Leitch  ;  and  the  General  in  his  orders  publicly  thanked 
the  troops  under  the  command  of  that  officer,  who  had  first  advanced 
on  the  enemy,  and  the  others  who  had  so  resolutely  supported  them. 

*  The  author  received  the  account  of  this  skirmish  from  the  Colonel  of  the  third 
Virginia  regiment,  and  from  the  Captains  commanding  the  companies  that  were 
engaged. 


Appendix.  73 

He  contrasted  their  conduct  with  that  which  had  been  exhibited  the 
day  before ;  and  the  result,  he  said  evidenced  what  might  be  done 
where  officers  and  soldiers  would  exert  themselves.  Once  more, 
therefore,  he  called  upon  them  so  to  act,  as  not  to  disgrace  the  noble 
cause  in  which  they  were  engaged.  He  appointed  a  successor  to 
"the  gallant  and  brave  Colonel  Knowlton  who  would,"  he  said, 
u  have  been  an  honour  to  any  country,  and  who  had  fallen  gloriously, 
fighting  at  his  post." 


FROM    GEN.    HEATH  S    MEMIORS. 

Sept.  15*.  About  noon,  the  British  landed  at  Kepps's  Bay.  They 
met  with  but  small  resistance,  and  pushed  towards  the  city,  of  which 
they  took  possession  in  the  afternoon.  They  availed  themselves  of 
some  cannon  and  stores  ;  but  their  booty  was  not  very  great.  Here 
the  Americans,  we  are  sorry  to  say,  did  not  behave  well ;  and  here  it 
was,  as  fame  hath  said,  that  Gen.  Washington  threw  his  hat  on  the 
ground,  and  exclaimed,  "  Are  these  the  men  with  which  I  am  to 
defend  America?"  But  several  things  may  have  weight  here; — 
the  wounds  received  on  Long-Island  were  yet  bleeding;  and  the 
officers,  if  not  the  men,  knew  that  the  city  was  not  to  be  defended. 
Maj.  Chapman  was  killed,  and  Brig.  Maj.  Wyllis  was  taken  prisoner. 
A  few  others  were  killed,  wounded,  and  taken  prisoners.  The 
Americans  retreated  up  the  island  ;  and  some  few,  who  could  not 
get  out  of  the  city  that  way,  escaped  in  boats  over  to  Paulus  Hook, 
across  the  river.  The  house,  in  the  fort  at  Horn's  Hook,  was  set 
on  fire  by  a  shell,  and  burnt  down.  The  fort  was  afterwards  aban- 
doned. 

Sept.  16th.  A  little  before  noon,  a  smart  skirmish  happened  on 
the  heights  west  of  Haerlem  Plain,  and  south  of  Morris's  house, 
between  a  party  of  Hessian  Yagers,  British  Light-Infantry  and  High- 
landers, and  the  American  riflemen  and  some  other  troops,  which 
ended  in  favour  of  the  latter.  The  troops  fought  well,  on  both  sides, 
and  gave  great  proof  of  their  markmanship.  The  Americans  had 
several  officers  killed  and  wounded  ;  among  the  former,  Lieut.  Col. 
Knoulton,  of  the  Connecticut  line,  and  Capt.  Gleason,  of  Nixon's 
Massachusetts  regiment,  two  excellent  officers  ;  and  Maj.  Leech,  of 
one  of  the  southern  regiments,  a  brave  officer,  was  among  the  latter. 
This  skirmish  might  have  brought  on   a  general  action ;  for  both 


74  Appendix. 

armies  were  then  within  supporting  distance  of  the  troops  which  were 
engaged. 


FROM    DR.    THACHERS    MILITARY    JOURNAL. 

Sept.  20,  1776.  We  have  the  information,  that  before  our  army 
evacuated  the  city  of  New  York,  General  Howe's  army  landed,  under 
cover  of  five  ships  of  war,  the  British  und  Hessians  in  two  separate 
divisions.  So  soon  as  this  was  announced  to  our  Commander  in 
Chief,  by  a  heavy  cannonade  from  the  men  of  war,  he  instantly  rode 
toward  our  lines,  but  he  was  astonished  and  mortified  to  find  that  the 
troops  which  had  been  posted  there,  and  also  two  brigades  which 
had  been  ordered  to  support  them,  were  retreating  in  great  confusion 
and  disorder.  He  made  every  effort  to  rally  them,  but  without  suc- 
cess ;  they  were  so  panic  struck  that  even  the  shadow  of  an  enemy 
seemed  to  increase  their  precipitate  flight.  His  Excellency,  dis- 
tressed and  enraged,  drew  his  sword  and  snapped  his  pistols  to  check 
them  ;  but  they  continued  their  flight  without  firing  a  gun  ;  and  the 
General,  regardless  of  his  own  safety,  was  in  so  much  hazard,  that 
one  of  his  attendants  seized  the  reins,  and  gave  his  horse  a  different 
direction. 

The  following  fact  is  of  considerable  interest.  When  retreating 
from  New  York,  Major  General  Putnam,  at  the  head  of  three  thous- 
and five  hundred  continental  troops,  was  in  the  rear,  and  the  last 
that  left  the  city.  In  order  to  avoid  any  of  the  enemy  that  might  be 
advancing  in  the  direct  road  to  the  city,  he  made  choice  of  a  road 
parallel  with  and  contiguous  to  the  North  River,  till  he  could  arrive 
at  a  certain  angle,  whence  another  road  would  conduct  him  in  such 
a  direction  as  that  he  might  form  a  junction  with  our  army.  It  so 
happened  that  a  body  of  about  eight  thousand  British  and  Hessians 
were  at  the  same  moment  advancing  on  the  road,  which  would 
have  brought  them  in  immediate  contact  with  General  Putnam,  before 
he  could  have  reached  the  turn  into  the  other  road.  Most  fortu- 
nately, the  British  generals,  seeing  no  prospect  of  engaging  our 
troops,  halted  their  own,  and  repaired  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Robert 
Murray,  a  quaker  and  friend  of  our  cause  ;  Mrs.  Murray  treated  them 
with  cake  and  wine,  and  they  were  induced  to  tarry  two  hours  or 
more,  Governor  Tryon  frequently  joking  her  about  her  American 
friends.  By  this  happy  incident,  General  Putnam,  by  continuing  his 
march,  escaped  a  recounter  with  a  greatly  superior  force,  which  must 


Appendix.  75 

have  proved  fatal  to  his  whole  party.  Ten  minutes,  it  is  said,  would 
have  been  sufficient  for  the  enemy  to  have  secured  the  road  at  the 
turn,  and  entirely  cut  off  General  Putnam's  retreat.  It  has  since 
become  almost  a  common  saying  among  our  officers,  that  Mrs. 
Murray  saved  this  part  of  the  American  army. 


FROM    CAPT.    GRAYDON's    MEMIORS. 

It  was  now  November.  I  was  on  guard  at  a  place  distinguished 
by  the  appellation  of  The  point  of  roeks,  which  skirted  the  road  lead- 
ing to  Kingsbridge.  This  was  our  most  advanced  picket  towards 
New  York,  and  only  separated  from  that  of  the  enemy  by  a  valley 
a  few  hundred  yards  over.  One  stormy  night  I  went  for  shelter  to  a 
deserted  house  on  the  low  ground  directly  across  the  road  about 
thirty  or  forty  yards  from  our  post — a  deserter  who  was  brought  in 
who  informed  us  that  the  house  was  a  very  unsafe  situation  as  the 
British  patroles  passed  very  near  it,  and  might  very  easily  sweep 
us  off. 


SIR    WILLIAM    HOWE    TO    LORD    GERMAIN. 

Head  Quarters,  York  Island,  Sept.  21,  1776. 

Mv  Lord — I  have  the  satisfaction  to  inform  your  Lordship  of  his 
Majesty's  troops  being  in  possession  of  the  city  of  New  York. 

Upon  the  rebels  abandoning  their  lines  at  Brooklyn,  the  King's 
army  moved  from  Bedford,  leaving  Lieut.  Gen.  Heister  encamped 
upon  the  heights  of  Brooklyn  with  two  brigades  of  Hessians,  and 
one  brigade  of  British  at  Bedford,  and  took  five  positions  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Newtown,  Bushwick,  Hell  Gate,  and  Flushing. 

The  two  islands  of  Montresor  and  Buchannan  were  occupied,  and 
batteries  raised  against  the  enemy's  work  at  Home's  Hook,  com- 
manding the  passage  at  Hell  Gate. 

On  the  15th  inst.  in  the  morning  three  ships  of  war  passed  up  the 
North  River  as  far  as  Bloomingdale,  to  draw  the  enemy's  attention 
to  that  side  ;  and  the  first  division  of  troops  consisting  of  the  light 
infantry,  the  British  reserve,  the  Hessian  grenadiers  and  chasseurs, 
under  the  command  of  Lieut.  Cren.  Clinton,  having  with  him  Lieut. 
Gen.  Earl  Cornwallis,  Major  Gen.  Vaughan,  Brig.  Gen.  Leslie,  and 
Colonel  Donop,  embarked   at  the   head  of  New  Town  Creek,  and 


y6  Appendix. 

landed  about  noon  upon  New  York  Island,  three  miles  from  the  town, 
at  a  place  called  Kepp's  Bay,  under  the  fire  of  two  forty  gun  ships 
and  three  frigates,  viz.  Phoenix,  Roebuck,  Orpheus,  Carysfort,  and 
Rose,  Commodore  Hotham  having  the  direction  of  the  ships  and 
boats. 

The  rebels  had  troops  in  their  works  round  Kepp's  Bay  ;  but  their 
attention  being  engaged  in  expectation  of  the  King's  troops  landing 
at  Stuyvesant's  Cove,  Horen's  Hook,  and  at  Harlem,  which  they  had 
reason  fo  conclude,  Kepp's  Bay  became  only  a  secondary  object  of 
their  care.  The  fire  of  the  shipping  being  so  well  directed  and  so 
incessant,  the  enemy  could  not  remain  in  their  works,  and  the  descent 
was  made  without  the  least  opposition.  The  conduct  of  the  officers 
of  the  navy  do  them  much  honor ;  and  the  behaviour  of  the  seamen 
belonging  to  the  ships  of  war  and  transports  employed  to  row  the 
boats,  was  highly  meritorious.  Much  praise  in  particular  is  due  to 
the  masters  and  men  of  six  transports,  that  passed  the  town  on  the 
evening  of  the  14th  under  a  heavy  fire,  being  volunteers,  to  take 
troops  on  board  for  the  more  speedy  disembarkation  of  the  second 
division. 

The  British  immediately  took  post  upon  the  commanding  height 
of  Inclenberg,  and  the  Hessians  moving  towards  New  York,  fell 
in  with  a  body  of  the  rebels  that  were  retiring  from  Stuyvesant's 
Cove,  some  firing  ensued,  by  which  a  Brigadier  General,  other  offi- 
cers, and  several  men  of  the  rebels  were  killed  and  wounded,  with 
the  loss  of  four  men  killed,  and  eight  wounded  on  the  part  of  the 
Hessians.  As  soon  as  the  second  embarkation  was  landed,  the  troops 
advanced  towards  a  corps  of  the  enemy  upon  a  rising  ground  three 
miles  from  IncleVo^rg,  towards  Kings-bridge,  having  McGowan's 
pass  in  their  rear,  upon  which  they  immediately  retired  to  the  main 
body  of  their  army  upon  Morris's  Height.  The  enemy  having  evac- 
uated New  York  soon  after  the  army  landed,  a  brigade  took  posses- 
sion of  the  works  in  the  evening.  The  prisoners  made  in  the  course 
of  this  day  were  about  20  officers  and  300  men. 

The  position  the  King's  army  took,  on  the  15th  in  the  evening, 
was  with  the  right  to  Horen's  Hook,  and  the  left  at  the  North  River 
near  to  Bloomingdale  ;  the  rebel  army  occupying  the  ground  with 
extensive  works  on  both  sides  of  King's  bridge,  and  a  redoubt  with 
cannon  upon  a  height  on  the  west  side  of  the  North  River  opposite 
to  the  Blue  Bell,  where  the  enemy  have  their  principal  work ;  in 
which  positions  both  armies  still  continue. 


Appendix.  77 

On  the  1 6th  in  the  morning  a  large  party  of  the  enemy  having 
passed  under  cover  of  the  woods  near  to  the  advanced  posts  of  the 
army  by  way  of  Vanderwater's  Height,  the  2d  and  3d  battalions  of 
light  infantry,  supported  by  the  42nd  regiment  pushed  forward,  and  drove 
them  back  to  their  entrenchments,  from  whence  the  enemy  observ- 
ing they  were  not  in  force,  attacked  them  with  near  3000  men,  which 
occasioned  the  march  of  the  reserve  with  two  field  pieces,  a  bat- 
talion of  Hessian  grenadiers  and  a  company  of  chasseurs,  to  prevent 
the  corps  engaged  from  being  surrounded  ;  but  the  light  infantry  and 
42nd  regiment  with  the  assistance  of  the  chasseurs  and  field  pieces 
repulsed  the  enemy  with  considerable  loss,  aud  obliged  them  to  retire 
within  their  works.  The  enemy's  loss  is  not  ascertained  ;  but  from 
the  accounts  of  deserters  it  is  agreed,  that  they  had  not  less  than  300 
killed  and  wounded,  and  among  them  a  colonel  and  a  major  killed. 
We  had  eight  officers  wounded  most  of  them  very  slightly  ;  fourteen 
men  killed  and  about  70  wounded. 

Maj.  Gen.  Vaughan  was  slightly  wounded  in  the  thigh  on  the  15th 
by  a  random  shot,  as  he  was  ascending  the  heights  of  Jnclenberg 
with  the  grenadiers  ;  and  I  have  the  pleasure  of  informing  your  Lord- 
ship that  Lieut.  Col.  Monckton  is  so  well  recovered,  he  has  been 
walking  about  some  days. 

[Upcott  Collection,  IV.,  410,  N.  Y.  Historical  Society.] 


EXTRACT    FROM    MS.    ORDER-BOOK    OF    BRITISH    FOOT    GUARDS. 

Sept.  17,  1776.  The  Commander  in  Chief  entertains  the  highest 
opinion  of  the  bravery  of  the  few  troops  that  yesterday  beat  back  a 
very  superior  body  of  the  Rebels,  and  desires  to  return  thanks  to 
the  Battalion  and  the  officers  and  men  of  the  Artillery  that  came 
to  their  support  and  disproves  the  conduct  of  the  light  company  in 
pursuing  the  Rebels  without  proper  discretion  without  support — 
expresses  satisfaction  at  the  behaviour  of  Gen.  Clinton's  troops  who 
took  possession  of  this  Island  on  the  15th  inst. 


FROM    STEWART'S  SKETCHES    OF    THE    HIGHLANDERS. 

After  the  escape  of  the  enemy,  active  operations  were  resumed  on 
the   15th  of  September;    and  the  reserve,  which  the  Royal  High- 


78  Appendix. 

landers  had  rejoined  after  the  action  at  Brooklyn,  crossed  over  the 
island  to  New  York,  three  miles  above  the  town,  and,  after  some 
opposition,  took  post  on  the  heights.  The  landing  being  completed, 
the  Highlanders  and  Hessians,  who  were  ordered  to  advance  to 
Bloomingdale,  to  intercept  the  enemy,  now  retreating  from  New 
York,  fell  in  with  and  captured  a  corps  of  New  England  men  and 
Virginians.  That  night  the  regiment  lay  on  their  arms,  occasionally 
skirmishing  with  the  enemy  On  the  16th  the  light  infantry  were 
sent  out-to  dislodge  a  party  of  the  enemy,  which  had  taken  posses- 
sion of  a  wood  facing  the  left  of  the  British.  The  action  becoming 
warm  towards  the  evening,  and  the  enemy  pushing  on  reinforce- 
ments, the  Highlanders  were  sent  to  support  the  light  infantry, 
when  the  Americans  were  quickly  driven  back  to  their  entrench- 
ments. Perceiving  that  our  force  was  small,  they  returned  to  the 
attack  with  3000  men  ;  but  these  were  likewise  repulsed,  with  con- 
siderable loss.  In  this  affair  our  loss  was  14  killed,  and  5  officers 
and  70  men  wounded. 


FROM    HISTORICAL    RECORD    OF    THE     FORTY-SECOND,    OR,    THE    ROYAL 
HIGHLAND    REGIMENT    OF    FOOT. 

Having  completed  the  capture  of  Long  Island,  the  army  crossed 
the  river  in  the  middle  of  September ;  the  Royal  Highlanders  being 
with  the  leading  division,  landed  above  New  York,  and  made  a  move- 
ment towards  Bloomingdale,  to  intercept  the  retreating  Americans, 
when  a  corps  of  Virginians  and  New  England  men  were  captured. 
The  Highlanders  passed  the  night  under  arms,  occasionally  skirmish- 
ing with  the  enemy  ;  and  the  commanding  officer  Major  William  Mur- 
ray, narrowly  escaped  being  made  prisoner.  He  was  passing  from 
the  light  infantry  battalion,  to  the  regiment,  and  was  beset  by  an 
American  officer  and  two  soldiers,  whom  he  kept  at  bay  some  time, 
but  they  eventually  closed  upon  him  and  threw  him  down  ;  he  was  a 
stout  man  of  great  strength  of  arm,  and  he  wrenched  the  sword  out 
of  the  American  officer's  hand,  and  made  so  good  use  of  it  that  his 
antagonists  fled,  before  several  men  of  the  regiment,  who  heard  the 
noise  could  come  to  his  assistance. 

On  the  following  day  the  regiment  was  ordered  to  support  the  light 
infantry  engaged  in  a  wood,  and  took  part  in  driving  a  numerous  body 
of  Americans  to  their  intrenchments.  The  enemy  renewed  the  con- 
flict with  augmented  numbers,  and  sustained  another  repulse  with 


Appendix.  79 

a  severe  loss  in  killed  and  wounded.  This  being  only  an  affair  of 
out-posts,  no  detailed  account  of  it  was  given  ;  but  it  was  a  well- 
contested  action.  The  Forty-second  had  one  Serjeant  and  three 
rank  and  file  killed  ;  Captains  Duncan  McPherson  and  John  Mc- 
intosh, Ensign  Alexander  McKenzie  (who  died  of  his  wounds),  three 
Serjeants,  one  piper,  two  drummers,  47  rank  and  file  wounded. 


LIEUT.    GEORGE     HARRIS    OF    THE     FIFTH    REGIMENT    OF     FOOT    TO    HIS 

UNCLE.  j 

After  landing  in  York  Island,  we  drove  the  Americans  into  their 
works  beyond  the  eighth  mile-stone  from  New  York,  and  thus  got 
possession  of  the  best  half  of  the  island.  We  took  post  opposite  to 
them,  placed  our  picquets,  borrowed  a  sheep,  killed,  cooked,  and  ate 
some  of  it,  and  then  went  up  to  sleep  on  a  gate,  which  we  took  the 
liberty  of  throwing  off  its  hinges,  covering  our  feet  with  an  American 
tent,  for  which  we  should  have  cut  poles  and  pitched,  had  it  not 
been  so  dark.  Give  me  such  living  as  we  enjoy  at  present,  such  a 
hut  and  such  company,  and  I  would  not  care  three  farthings  if  we 
stayed  all  the  winter,  for  though  the  mornings  and  evenings  are 
cold,  yet  the  sun  is  so  hot  as  to  oblige  me  to  put  up  a  blanket  as 
a  screen.  Tell  my  best  of  mothers  that  my  compass  has  been  of  the 
greatest  use  in  enabling  me  to  ascertain  the  proper  aspects  for  our 
houses,  and  has  gained  me,  in  fine,  the  thanks  of  all  parties. 

The  1 6th  of  September  we  were  ordered  to  stand  to  our  arms  at 
eleven  a.m.  and  were  instantly  trotted  about  three  miles  (without  a 
halt  to  draw  breath),  to  support  a  battalion  of  light  infantry,  which 
had  imprudently  advanced  so  far  without  support  as  to  be  in  great 
danger  of  being  cut  off.  This  must  have  happened,  but  for  our 
haste.  So  dangerous  a  quality  is  courage  without  prudence  for  its 
guide ;  with  it,  how  noble  and  respectable  it  makes  the  man.  But  to 
return  to  our  narrative.  The  instant  the  front  of  our  columns 
appeared,  the  enemy  began  to  retire  to  their  works,  and  our  light 
infantry  to  the  camp.  On  our  return  we  were  exposed  to  the  fire  of 
the  Americans.  A  man  in  my  company  had  his  hat  shot  through 
nearly  in  the  direction  of  my  wound,  but  the  ball  merely  raised  the 
skin  ;  and  in  the  battalion  on  our  left  a  man  was  shot  so  dead  when 
lying  on  the  ground,  that  the  next  man  did  not  perceive  it,  but  when 
he  got  up  to  stand  to  his  arms,  kicked  his  comrade,  thinking  he  was 


80  Appendix. 

asleep,  and  then  found,  to  his  great  surprise  that  he  was  quite  dead, 
a  ball  having  entered  under  the  ear,  and  very  little  blood  having 
issued  from  it. 

Before  we  started  in  the  morning,  our  dinner,  consisting  of  a  goose 
and  piece  of  mutton  had  been  put  on  the  fire.  The  moment  we 
marched,  our  domestic  deposited  the  above  named  delicacies  on  a 
chaise,  and  followed  us  with  it  to  our  ground.  When  the  fight  was 
over,  he  again  hung  the  goose  to  the  fire,  but  the  poor  bird  had  been 
scarcely  half  done,  when  we  were  ordered  to  return  to  our  station. 
There  again  we  commenced  cooking,  and  though  without  dish,  plate, 
or  knife  did  ample  justice  to  our  fare,  which  we  washed  down  with 
bad  rum  and  water,  and  then  composed  ourselves  to  rest  on  our 
friendly  gate.  Our  baggage  joined  us  the  next  day. 
[Lushington's  Life  of  Lord  Harris,  p.  78.] 


EXTRACT    OF    A    LETTER    FROM    NEW    YORK,    DATED    SEPT.     23,    1 776. 

About  four  days  since  the  light  infantry,  who  are  the  van  of  our 
army,  pressed  too  gallantly  upon  a  very  superior  body  of  the  rebels, 
and  drove  them  off,  but  with  the  loss  of  125  killed  and  wounded. 
[Upcott  Collection,  IV.,  391,  N.  Y.  Historical  Society.] 


FROM    STEDMAN  S    HISTORY    OF    THE    AMERICAN    WAR. 

On  the  morning  of  the  16th  September,  a  detachment  was  sent 
out  from  the  main  body  of  the  Americans  to  a  wood  facing  the  left 
flank  of  the  English  army.  Three  companies  of  our  light  infantry 
were  dispatched  to  dislodge  them.  The  enemy,  with  a  seeming 
intention  of  retreating  to  the  main  body,  retired  into  the  interior 
parts  of  the  wood,  where  they  were  reinforced  by  another  detach- 
ment \  which  made  it  necessary  that  the  remainder  of  the  light  in- 
fantry, with  the  42nd  regiment  should  be  sent  to  support  the  companies 
that  were  engaged.  The  action  was  carried  on  by  reinforcements 
on  both  sides,  and  became  very  warm.  The  enemy,  however,  pos- 
sessed a  great  advantage  from  the  circumstance  of  engaging  within 
half  a  mile  of  their  intrenched  camp,  whence  they  could  be  supplied 
with  fresh  troops  as  often  as  occasion  required.     Victory,  neverthe- 


Appendix.  8 1 

less,  was  on  the  part  of  the  loyalists  ;   and  the  Americans  retreated 
with  the  loss  of  three  hundred  killed  and  wounded. 

Note. — Manuscript  note  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton  in  his  Copy  of  Stedman,  now 
in  the  Library  of  John  Carter  Brown  of  Providence,  R.  I.  :  "  The  ungovernable 
impetuosity  of  the  light  troops  drew  us  into  this  Scrape.     C." 


FROM     BRIGADE      LIST     OF     BRITISH    ARMY   AS     ARRANGED    AT    STATEN 
ISLAND,    JULY,     1 7  76.  * 

Four  Battalions  of  Light  Infantry,  commanded  by  Brig.  Gen. 
Alexander  Leslie.  ist  Battalion  Major  Thomas  Musgrave.  2d  Bat- 
talion Major  Turner  Straubenzee.  3d  Battalion  Major  Hon.  John 
Maitland.     4th  Battalion  Major  John  Johnson. 

Corps  de  Reserve,  commanded  by  Lieut.  Gen.  Earl  Cornwallis, 
having  under  him  Major  Gen.  Vaughan.  33d  Regiment  Lieut.  Col. 
James  Webster.  42d  Royal  Highlanders  Lieut.  Col.  Thomas  Stir- 
ling. ist  Battalion  of  Grenadiers  Lieut.  Col.  Hon.  Henry  Monck- 
ton.  2d  Battalion  Lieut.  Col.  William  Medows.  3d  Battalion  Major 
James  Marsh.     4th  Battalion  Major  Charles  Stuart. 

Corps  of  Artillery,  commanded  by  Brig.-Gen.  Cleavland. 
[Beatson's  Military  Memoirs  of  Great  Britain,  VI.,  49.] 


HESSIAN    ACCOUNT   OF    THE     ACTION. 

On  the  16th  of  September  quite  a  brisk  tight  took  place  on  York 
Island.  The  Americans  on  the  morning  of  this  day  sent  from  their 
camp  a  strong  detachment  which  came  out  of  the  wood  and  attacked 
our  left  wing.  The  second  and  third  regiments  of  Light  Infantry 
supported  by  the  42 d  Regiment  (Highlanders)  moved  out  and 
drove  the  enemy  back  into  their  entrenchments.  The  latter  did  this 
intentionally  to  entice  the  pursuers  deeper  into  the  wood  where  a 
stronger  division  was  already  concealed  for  their  support,  computed 
at  three  thousand  men.  Gen.  Leslie,  who  was  in  command  of  the 
British,  soon  encountered  a  severe  resistance.  Col.  von  Donop  as 
well  as  the  British  Regiments  next  in  line  to  him  received  orders  to 
move  up  to  their  support ;  the  former  moved  up  with  his  Yagers  and 
the  Grenadier  battalion  of  Linsingen,  while  he  sent  off  the  two  other 


82  Appendix. 

grenadier  battalions  of  von  Block  and  von  Minnigerode  to  occupy 
the  defile  on  the  road  to  King's  Bridge. 

The  Yagers  who  swarmed  forward  soon  came  into  a  hot  contest 
on  Hoyland's  Hill — when,  however,  the  Linsingen  battalion  moved 
up  to  their  support  the  Americans  retired.  The  Yagers  had  eight 
wounded,  among  them  Lt.  Heinrichs.  The  Yagers  and  the  bat- 
talions of  Grenadiers  bivouacked  in  the  wood  not  far  from  Bloom- 
ingdale,  and  when  the  next  morning  the  two  other  grenadier  battalions 
came  up  Donop  with  his  brigade  encamped  here.  The  Hessians 
here  helped  the  British  out  of  the  mire.  Donop,  usually  so  modest, 
says  in  his  report  to  General  von  Heister : 

"  But  for  my  Yagers,  two  Regiments  of  Highlanders  and  the 
British  infantry  would  have  all,  perhaps,  been  captured,  for  they  were 
attacked  by  a  force  four  times  their  number ;  and  Gen.  Leslie  had 
made  a  great  blunder  in  sending  these  brave  fellows  so  far  in  ad- 
vance in  the  woods  without  support." 

On  this  occasion  Capts  Wredon  and  Lorey  especially  distinguished 
themselves — the  former  went  twenty  paces  in  advance  of  the  Yagers 
in  the  firing  line,  and  the  latter  shot  down  the  leader  of  the  hostile 
battalion,  upon  which  they  turned  their  backs  and  fled. 

The  enemy  lost  about  three  hundred  killed  and  wounded,  among 
whom  were  Colonel  Knowlton  and  Major  Leitch  both  of  whom  died 
soon  after  of  their  wounds.  Our  loss  amounted  to  14  dead  and  78 
wounded — among  the  latter,  7  English  officers.* 

[Translated  from  Die  deutschen  Hulfstruppen  im  nordamerikanischen  Befreiung- 
skiiege,  1776  bis  1783.  Von  Max  von  Elking,  corresponding  member  N.  Y.  His- 
torical Society.] 


FROM     REPORT    OF    MAJOR    C.    L.    BAURMEISTER. 

In  detached  Camp  near  Hell  Gate,  24  Sept.  1776. 
On  the  16th  (Sept)  the  enemy  encamped  before  Fort  Washington 
in  pretty  good  order  ;  the  left  wing  extending  to  Harlem.  From 
Fort  Washington  an  entrenchment  to  King's  Bridge,  by  which  they 
secured  a  further  retreat  under  the  protection  of  the  said  fort.  The 
English  Light  Infantry  advanced  too  quickly  on  the  retreat  of  the 
enemy  and  at  Bruckland  Hill  fell  into  an  ambuscade  of  four  thousand 

*  From  the  Journal  of  General  von  Heister  and  the  Diary  of  Captain  von 
Walzburg. 


AppC7idix.  83 

men,  and  if  the  Grenadiers  and  especially  the  Hessian  Yagers  had 
not  arrived  in  time  to  help  them  no  one  of  these  brave  Light  In- 
fantry would  have  escaped.  They  lost  70  dead  and  200  wounded — 
the  enemy  must  have  lost  very  severely,  because  no  Yager  had  any 
ammunition  left,  and  all  the  Highlanders  had  fired  their  last  shot. 
A  lieutenant  of  the  Yagers,  Heinrichs,  was  wounded  in  the  left  side 
and  also  four  Yagers.  By  the  Parole  of  the  17th  Genl.  Howe,  notic- 
ing his  satisfaction  on  the  happy  landing,  found  it  necessary  to  recom- 
mend the  corps  under  the  command  of  General  Leslie  to  be  not 
only  brave  but  more  prudent.  The  British  at  Bloomingdale  en- 
camped in  two  lines.  Some  of  the  enemy's  baggage  jmd  waggons 
with  flour  were  taken. 

[Translated  from  original  MSS.  in  possession  of  Hon.  George  Bancroft.] 


LIEUT.     JOHN    HEINRICHS    TO    A.    L.     SCHLOZER. 

New  York  Island,  in  the  district  of  Harlem,  5  English  miles  from  the  City 
of  New  York,  and  100  yards  from  Hornhogk  on  the  East  River,  Sept.  18,  1776. 

Last  Sunday  (Sept  15)  we  landed  under  the  thundering  rattle  of 
5  men-of-war,  in  flat  boats  from  Long  Island,  on  New  York  Island, 
about  4  miles  from  New  York  city.  As  skirmishers  we  usually 
formed  the  advance-guard,  etc.  Briefly ;  in  the  afternoon  this  part 
of  the  island  was  ours.  But  just  as  we  were  about  going  into  quar- 
ters, the  rebels  caused  a  new  alarm,  and  we  were  obliged  to  turn  out. 
I  had  the  right  wing  of  the  out-posts;  we  marched  towards  King's 
Bridge,  consequently  I  came  close  on  the  East  River,  which  is  lined 
with  the  finest  houses.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  taking  possession  of  all 
these  houses,  together  with  the  hostile  battery,  where  I  found  5  can- 
nons ;  the  rebels  all  fled.  All  the  houses  were  crammed  with  furni- 
ture, rural  riches,  and  jewels  ;  the  people  however  had  all  fled,  and 
left  their  slaves  behind.  But  the  next  day  one  proprietor  after  another 
came  back  and  joyful  tears  of  gratitude  rolled  down  the  faces  of  these 
formerly  happy  people,  when  they  found  again  their  houses,  fruits,  cat- 
tle, and  all  their  furniture,  and  heard  from  one  that  I  had  merely  taken 
possession  for  them,  and  delivered  their  property  back  to  their  hands. 

The  next  day  the  rebels  4000  men  strong  advanced  against  our 
out-posts,  and  we  sustained  a  severe  fire,  until  towards  the  afternoon, 
when  they  were  driven  away,  as  I  afterwards  heard  ;  for  at  one 
o'clock  I  was  compelled  to  withdraw,  as  I  was  shot  by  a  rifle-ball  in 


84  Appendix. 

the  left  side  of  the  breast  4  fingers  distant  from  the  heart.  To  whom 
could  I  more  safely  go,  and  who  would  receive  me  in  a  more  friendly 
manner  than  they  who  had  but  yesterday  called  me  their  benefactor, 
their  preserver  ?  As  I  do  not  like  noise,  now  still  less  than  ever  ; 
I  selected  for  myself,  although  I  could  have  chosen  palaces,  a  small 
house  on  the  East  River,  to  which  the  widow  of  a  New  York  preacher, 
Oglyby,  had  fled  with  a  numerous  family  of  children  and  step-children. 
Not  far  distant  was  the  house  or  rather  the  palace  of  her  old  father, 
who  had  a  storehouse  full  of  porcelain,  wine,  and  brandy,  but  had 
lost  nothing  from  it. 

All  these  people  came  back  last  evening  ;  and  the  emotion  I  felt 
on  seeing  mother  and  children,  grandfather  and  grandchildren,  &c. 
down  to  the  black  children  of  the  slaves,  hugging  and  kissing  each 
other,  so  affected  my  wound,  that  I  got  a  fever  in  the  night.  Not 
to  be  thought  of  are  the  flatteries  the  good  people  showered  on  me 
which  I  did  not  deserve,  as  I  acted  only  according  to  orders. 

[Translated  from   Schlozer's  Briefwechsel   meist    historischen   und  politischen 
Inhalts,  Vol.  II.,  Part  vii.,  p.  99.] 


PROCEEDINGS 


NEW  YORK    HISTORICAL    SOCIETY 


IN     COMMEMORATION 


BATTLE     OF    HARLEM     PLAINS 


ON    ITS 


ONE    HUNDREDTH    ANNIVERSARY 


September    16,    1876. 


At  a  stated  meeting  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  held 
in  its  Hail  on  Tuesday  evening,  June  6,  1876,  the  President,  Fred- 
eric de  Peyster,  in  the  chair — 

The  Executive  Committee  submitted  the  following  communication  : 

The  Executive  Committee  take  leave  to  remind  the  Society  of  the  approaching 
Centennial  Aniversary  of  the  Battle  of  Harlem  Plains,  fought  on  the  16th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1776.  The  action,  though  of  minor  importance,  was  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  exploits  of  the  Revolutionary  War.  In  a  close  conflict,  the  most  cele- 
brated of  the  British  regiments,  after  an  unsuccessful  effort  to  break  the  American 
lines,  were  repulsed  and  driven  in  confusion  by  the  Continental  troops.  This  suc- 
cess restored  confidence  to  the  patriot  forces  demoralized  by  the  retreat  from  Long 
Island  and  the  subsequent  landing  of  the  British  at  Kip's  Bay. 

Such  an  incident  in  the  annals  of  New  York  should  not  pass  unnoticed  in  this 
year  of  historic  commemoration,  and  it  is  fitting  that  this  Society  should  formally 
celebrate  the  occasion  in  an  appropriate  manner. 

A  special  Committee  on  Celebrations  has  recently  been  appointed  by  the  Execu- 
tive Committee,  and  authority  is  asked  of  the  Society  to  carry  out  such  programme 
as  may  be  by  them  proposed. 

Mr.  James  W.  Beekman,  2d  Vice-President,  after  some  remarks, 
submitted  the  following  resolution,  which  was  adopted  : 

Resolved,  That  the  communication  of  the  Executive  Committee  be  referred  back 
to  the  same  Committee,  with  power. 

Extract  from  the  Minutes, 

ANDREW  WARNER, 

Recording  Secretary. 


NEW     YORK     HISTORICAL     SOCIETY. 


COMMEMORATION 


of  tup: 


BATTLE  OF  HARLEM  PLAINS 


Saturday,  September  16,  1876. 

A  special  meeting  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society  was  this 
day  held,  pursuant  to  its  order,  to  celebrate  the  One  Hundredth  Anni- 
versary of  the  action  known  as  the  Battle  of  Harlem  Plains,  fought 
on  Monday,  September  16th,  1776.  To  this  meeting,  on  the  heights 
of  Bloomingdale,  the  crest  of  the  hill  overlooking  Harlem  Plains, 
between  117th  and  119th  streets,  and  the  Ninth  and  Tenth  avenues, 
the  Governors  of  all  States  whose  troops  were  engaged  in  the  battle, 
our  State  and  City  officials,  representative  regiments  of  the  city  mili- 
tary, and  numerous  distinguished  guests  were  invited. 

The  proceedings  were  under  the  charge  of  a  Committee  of  One 
Hundred  of  the  members  of  the  Society.  The  guests  were  received 
at  the  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  where  a  collation  was  provided,  and  were 
escorted  by  the  officers  of  the  Society  to  the  ground,  where  platforms, 
gaily  decorated  with  the  Continental,  Union,  State,  and  City  flags, 
were  arranged  for  their  reception.  The  ground,  covered  with  tents, 
presented  the  appearance  of  an  encampment,  and  from  its  elevated 
position  commanding  extensive  views  of  the  North  and  East  Rivers, 
was  visible  from  a  great  distance,  presenting  a  scene  of  rare  and 
animated  beauty. 

The  officers  and  their  guests  arrived  upon  the  field  at  the  appointed 

hour,  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  were  closely  followed  by  the 

Seventh  Regiment,  N.  Y.  S.  Militia,  who  marched  past  to  the  position 

assigned  them,  where  they  halted  in  military  formation.     In  their 

6 


88  Commemoration  of  the 

rear  a  large  tent  had  been  set  up  where  a  generous  lunch  was  pro- 
vided. At  this  moment  there  were  not  less  than  ten  thousand  people 
present,  including  a  large  number  of  ladies,  for  whom  ample  accom- 
modation in  seats  had  been  arranged,  and  the  carriage  enclosure  was 
also  full  of  gay  equipages. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  Frederic  de  Peyster,  LL.D., 
the  President  of  the  Society,  who  introduced  the  Rev.  Morgan  Dix, 
D.D.,  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  who  invited  the  Divine  blessing. 

Almighty  God,  Whose  kingdom  is  everlasting,  and  Whose  power  is  infinite  : 
Have  mercy  upon  all  Thy  people,  and  so  rule  their  hearts,  that  they  may  above  all 
things  seek  Thy  honor  and  glory,  and  faithfully  obey  all  in  authority,  according  to 
Thy  word  and  ordinance,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

Almighty  God,  Who  hast  in  all  ages  showed  forth  Thy  power  and  mercy  in  the 
protection  of  every  nation  and  people  putting  their  sure  trust  in  Thee  :  we  yield 
Thee  our  unfeigned  thanks  and  praise  for  all  Thy  public  mercies,  and  more  especi- 
ally for  the  signal  and  wonderful  manifestations  of  Thy  providence  which  we  com- 
memorate this  year.  Wherefore,  not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  Thy 
Name  be  ascribed  all  honor  and  glory  from  generation  to  generation. 

Behold,  O  God  our  defender,  and  give  peace  in  our  time ;  let  the  invincible 
defence  of  Thy  power  be  the  bulwark  of  Thy  faithful  people  ;  give  us  rest  evermore 
from  the  storm  of  war,  that  we  may  continually  serve  Thee  in  all  godly  quietness 
and  rejoice  in  giving  praise  to  Thee,  Who  livest  and  reignest,  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  world  without  end. 

Our  Father,  Who  art  in  heaven,  f I  allowed  be  Thy  Name.  Thy  Kingdom 
come.  Thy  Will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily 
bread.  And  forgive  us  our  trespasses,  As  we  forgive  those  who  trespass  against 
us.  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation ;  But  deliver  us  from  evil :  For  Thine  is  the 
kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the  glory,  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen. 

The  President,  Mr.  de  Peyster,  then  addressed  the  meeting,  intro- 
ducing the  Hon.  John  Jay,  the  orator  of  the  day. 

In  the  name  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  of  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
be  President,  and  in  the  exercise  of  my  prerogative,  I  welcome  you  all  this  day  to 
this  memorable  spot  upon  which  was  fought  the  action,  the  hundredth  anniversary 
of  which  we  are  assembled  to  celebrate.  Especially  I  welcome  the  distinguished 
officials  from  neighboring  States,  as  well  as  of  our  own  City,  who  grace  the  occa- 
sion with  their  presence,  and  the  officers  and  men  of  the  gallant  Seventh  Regiment, 
who  have  so  cordially  and  patriotically  responded  to  our  invitation,  and  now  clothe 
this  peaceful  scene  with  the  bright  panoply  of  war. 

We  are  standing  upon  the  very  ground  where  the  hottest  of  the  Battle  of  Harlem 
Plains  was  fought ;  and  from  the  crest  of  this  hill  we  may  see  to  the  northward 
the  Point  of  Rocks,  and  to  the  southward  McGowan's  Pass,  whence  the  rival 
armies  surveyed  the  field  of  contest,  the  struggle,  the  flight,  and  the  victory. 

It  is  neither  my  purpose  nor  within  the  range  of  my  duty  to  touch  even  lightly 


Battle  of  Harlem  Pla  ns.  89 

upon  this  historic  theme;  the  battle  and  its  consequences  will  be  related  to  you  by 
the  distinguished  gentleman  whom  the  Society  has  selected  as  the  orator  of  the 
day,  whose  name  you  will  recognize  as  one  familiar  in  New  York  annals.  But  I 
may  call  your  attention  to  the  fact,  that  this  is  the  only  day  which  we  of  New 
York  may  properly  celebrate  in  this  year  of  Centennial  rejoicing,  if  we  except  the 
clay  of  our  National  Independence.  But  you  and  the  orator  of  the  day  will  par- 
don me,  if  I  submit  one  historic  reflection,  and  at  the  same  time  answer  a  not 
uncommon  inquiry :  Why  does  this  great  city,  with  its  enormous  population, 
celebrate  an  action  which  was  after  all  rather  a  skirmish  of  outposts  than  in  any 
true  sense  a  battle  ?  Why  dignify  with  military  show,  the  raising  of  banners,  and 
the  assemblage  of  this  mass  of  patriotic  citizens  an  action  which  would  seem  at 
first  sight  worthy  of  hardly  more  than  a  village  parade  ? 

In  the  scale  of  history  events  are  not  measured  by  ordinary  standards.^  They  are 
great  and  memorable  in  proportion  to  their  consequences.  Montaigne,  the  pro- 
found observer,  of  whom  it  has  been  well  said  that  he  not  only  depended  on 
the  natural  force  of  his  own  vast  and  penetrative  powers,  but  that  he  made  of 
all  that  he  committed  his  own,  referring  to  the  extraordinary  combat  in  which 
Leonidas  with  his  immortal  band  defended  the  passes  of  his  country,  remarked  that 
the  four  famous  victories  of  Greece,  the  fairest  the  sun  ever  shone  on— Salamis, 
Platea,  Mycale,  and  Sicily,  never  opposed  all  their  united  glories  to  the  single 
glory  of  Thermopylae.  Yet,  this  battle — if  battle  it  may  be  called,  the  glory  of 
which  still  shines  with  undiminished  lustre  after  the  lapse  of  twenty  three  centuries, 
— was  but  the  struggle  of  three  hundred  men  ;  the  death  roll  of  three  hundred  men 
and  their  gallant  king,  of  whom  our  own  Anthon  (my  dear  personal  friend), 
profound  classical  scholar,  has  observed,  with  a  knowledge  of  Grecian  character  all 
his  own,  that  " they  no  doubt  considei"ed  their  persevering  stand  in  the  post  en- 
trusted to  them  not  as  an  act  of  high  and  heroic  devotion,  but  of  simple  and  indis- 
pensable duty."  Looking  upon  the  intelligent  faces  and  martial  forms  of  the  gal- 
lant regiment,  to  whom  not  only  our  City  and  our  State,  but  the  whole  country 
owes  so  heavy  a  debt  of  gratitude,  I  am  forcibly  reminded  by  this  illustration  of 
the  ennobling  sentiment  that  duty  to  country  is  the  one  distinguishing  trait,  em- 
bracing all  other  qualities  in  itself,  of  the  true  soldier. 

At  the  entrance  of  the  pass  of  Thermopylae  a  monument  stood  in  antiquity, 
bearing  only  the  simple  inscription  :  "  Go,  traveller,  tell  at  Sparta  that  we  died 
here  in  obedience  to  the  laws."  I  do  not  propose  to  establish  a  comparison  be- 
tween the  action  of  Harlem  Plains  and  the  Spartan  fight,  save  to  claim  for 
the  one  as  for  the  other  the  glory  of  its  consequences  far  out  of  proportion  to  its 
own  immediate  importance.  The  Persian  hosts  learned  the  lesson  that  Sparta 
might  be  annihilated,  but  never  conquered,  and  the  proud  veterans  of  England 
and  the  continent,  rudely  awakened  from  their  dream  of  easy  conquest,  on  this 
our  battle-field  first  saw  the  magnitude  of  their  undertaking,  and  in  their 
sharp  repulse  were  made  to  know  the  temper  and  the  character  of  the  American 
soldier.  A  century  has  passed  since  the  prudent  voice  of  Washington  recalled 
the  troops,  flushed  with  victory,  from  their  eager  pursuit  of  the  flying  foe.  A 
hundred  years — the  little  city  which  the  patriots  defended  has  overrun  the  island 
and  climbed  the  very  heights  whereon  they  made  their  last  stand,  yet  this  spot, 
this  ridge  of  hill  and  yonder  plains  are  all  unchanged.      The  rocks  behind  which 


90  Commemoration  of  the 

the  flying  troops  sought  shelter  are  still  here  to-day,  and  the  grass  still  grows 
upon  the  rich  plain  below,  while  all  around,  northward  and  southward,  east  and 
west,  stately  buildings  show  the  development  of  our  city,  a  noble  testimony  to 
the  wisdom  of  our  fathers.  The  patriotic  enthusiasm  which  beams  upon  me 
from  this  audience  assures  me  that  here  at  least  there  is  no  want  of  reverence  for 
the  past,  or  love  for  our  country.  Our  country  !  well  may  we  exclaim  with 
Cicero:  "O!  jus  eximium  nostras  civitatis  ! "  (Oh!  matchless  right  of  our 
country  !)     All  that  we  are  and  have  is  hers  of  right. 

I  am  glad  that  the  narration  of  the  events  of  September  16,  1776,  has  fallen  to 
a  son  of  New  York — a  gentleman  who  worthily  upholds  the  honor  of  his  ances- 
tral name — a  grandson  of  that  pure,  patriotic,  and  elevated  man,  the  friend  of 
Washington,  the  first  Chief-Justice  of  the  United  States,  of  whom  Webster  so 
beautifully  said  that  when  the  ermine  of  justice  fell  on  his  shoulders  it  touched 
nothing  less  spotless  than  itself.  I  beg  to  introduce  to  you  the  Honorable  John 
Jay. 

On  the  conclusion  of  the  oration  the  Rev.  Richard  S.  Storrs, 
D.D.,  rising  to  move  a  resolution  of  thanks,  made  the  following 
remarks  : 

Mr.  President  : — I  rise  to  offer  a  resolution,  which,  I  am  glad  to  know,  has 
already  been  anticipated  in  the  judgment  and  the  feeling  of  every  one  in  this  vast 
and  most  respectable  assemblage  who  has  been  able  to  hear  the  admirable  address 
to  which  we  have  been  listening.  We  must  all  feel,  I  am  sure,  that  it  has  been 
good  to  stand  together  upon  these  heights,  consecrated  by  the  courage  and  the 
devotion,  and  signalized  by  the  success  of  a  hundred  years  ago.  If  it  be  true,  as 
has  been  said,  as  has  been  repeated  in  the  address  to  which  we  have  listened,  that 
one  could  not  stand  at  Iona  without  having  his  piety  revived,  or  at  Marathon  with- 
out feeling  a  fresh  glow  of  patriotic  impulse,  we  must  all  agree  that  it  is  still  better 
for  us,  American  citizens,  to  stand  where  we  are ;  where  no  mere  picture  of  distant 
or  ancient  battle  has  been  engaging  our  thoughts  ;  where  a  fierce  struggle,  fought 
to  a  successful  issue,  became,  as  has  been  shown,  a  principal  condition  of  our 
present,  permanent,  and  glorious  American  liberty.  We  must  rejoice  that  the 
defeat  and  the  dismay,  the  massacre  and  the  retreat  of  Brooklyn  Heights  gave 
place  to  the  success  and  the  victory  of  Harlem  Plains.  It  is  every  way  ennobling  to 
stand  upon  these  summits,  where,  through  the  enveloping  murk  and  gloom,  shone 
forth  the  transfiguring  light  of  the  wisdom  and  the  courage  of  Washington  and  his 
comrades,  and  to  be  reminded  of  the  precious  blood  by  the  shedding  of  which  free- 
dom and  hope  were  purchased  for  us. 

It  is  good  to  remember,  too,  as  we  have  been  told  to-day,  that  not  only  the  men 
whom  history  celebrates  contributed  to  the  success  which  we  commemorate  ;  that  a 
woman's  hand  turned  the  poised  scales  of  destiny,  and  that  to  a  woman's  wit  and 
patriotic  courage  was  due  the  rescue  of  Putnam  and  his  division  from  the  troops  of 
General  Howe.  We  do  not  care  to  know  henceforth  the  name  "  Incleberg  ! " 
Let  it  sleep  in  the  historic  page  !  Let  it  linger  only  amid  the  records  which  eager 
and  patient  eyes,  like  those  of  our  orator,  shall  explore  !     Let  us  rejoice  that  it 


Battle  of  Harlem  Plains.  91 

has  been  swept  from  present  American  remembrance  by  the  superseding  name  of 
that  noble  woman  which  shall  cling  as  now  to  "  Murray  Hill,"  and  make  it  her 
monument,  while  New  York  continues.  Let  us  gratefully  remember  that  to  that 
bright  woman,  and  to  the  soldiers  whose  escape  she  secured,  we  owe  the  liberties 
which  we  to-day  enjoy  and  boast  !  Let  us  not  forget,  as  we  go  from  these  heights, 
that  the  artisan  pursues  his  peaceful  industry,  because  the  soldier  fought  here  be- 
fore him  ;  that  this  holiday  assembly,  these  holiday  flags,  the  commerce  which  seeks 
yonder  liquid  highways,  on  the  right  hand  and  the  left ;  all  the  manifold  industries 
of  the  city  and  of  the  land  ;  these  asylums,  our  churches  and  newspapers,  our 
schools  and  courts,  yonder  splendid  mansions,  that  beauteous  pleasure  ground — 
these  all  are  now  possible  to  us  because  the  soldiers  of  a  hundred  years  since  stood 
fast  and  died  in  our  behalf!  And,  as  we  remember  this  indebtedness  \j/>  the  past, 
let  us  honor  those  who  represent  those  soldiers  in  the  present,  with  an  equal  readi- 
ness to  do  and  to  die  ;  and  let  us  determine  for  ourselves,  that  each  of  us,  by  life 
and  labor,  will  contribute  in  our  peaceful  individual  ways,  as  far  as  it  is  given  us 
to  do  it,  to  the  furtherance  of  the  liberty  for  which  they  died,  the  memory  of  whose 
sacrifice  hallows  this  ground,  to  the  maintenance  of  that  Republican  civilization  to 
whose  early  beginnings  their  names  and  work  still  give  renown  ! 

Mr.  President:  We  have  been  instructed  by  the  careful  and  various  know- 
ledge of  our  distinguished  orator.  We  have  been  charmed  by  the  vivid  and  pic- 
turesque grace  with  which  he  has  unrolled  before  us  this  memorable  panorama  of 
battle.  We  have  been  quickened  and  inspired  by  his  thoughtful  and  patriotic  elo- 
quence. We  shall  all,  I  am  sure,  rejoice  together  that  the  Committee  of  Arrange- 
ments entrusted  this  office  to  one  of  whom  it  has  already  been  well  said  that  he 
worthily  bears  an  illustrious  name — a  name  which  is  so  great  an  inheritance  that  it 
takes  a  good  man  and  a  strong  man  to  bear  it  worthily !  And  I  know  that  I 
simply  utter  the  feeling  of  all  present,  when,  in  behalf  of  the  Society,  which  has 
done  me  the  honor  to  count  me  among  its  honorary  members,  I  offer  the  following 
resolution  : 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  be  and  are  hereby  tendered  to  the 
Honorable  John  Jay  for  his  interesting  and  instructive  address  of  this  day,  in 
commemoration  of  the  historic  event  which  took  place  on  this  spot  a  hundred 
years  ago  ;  and  that  a  copy  be  requested  for  publication. 

The  Hon.  James  W.  Keekman  seconded  the  resolution. 

Mr.  President  : — In  seconding  the  resolution  which  has  just  been  so  eloquently 
offered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Storrs,  I  propose  to  point  out,  as  a  peculiar  reason  for 
its  adoption,  the  justice  done  to  New  York  by  this  celebration. 

I  venture  to  claim  for  Manhattan  more  honor  for  patriotic  devotion  and  courage 
than  it  has  been  usual  to  accord  her.  We  are  accustomed  to  hear  the  praises  of 
New  England  ;  and  Bunker  Hill  has  eclipsed  in  fame,  by  reason  of  its  priority  of 
occurrence,  all  the  other  considerable  battles  of  the  war  of  Independence.  Yet 
New  York  began  resistance  to  British  aggression  in  the  street  battle  of  Golden 
Hill,  at  the  corner  of  the  present  John  and  Pearl  streets.  The  first  blood  of  the 
American  Revolution  was  there  shed,  on  the  iSth  of  January,  1770  (as  has  been 


92  Commemoration  of  the 

pointed  out  by  the  historian  Dawson),  two  months  before  the  famous  "massacre  " 
in  King  street,  Boston,  and  five  years  and  four  months  before  the  affair  of  Lexing- 
ton. Liberty  of  conscience,  which  was  the  later  boast  of  Rhode  Island  and 
Maryland,  always  prevailed  in  New  York  from  its  foundation  ;  liberty  of  the 
press  was  maintained  in  the  acquittal  of  John  Peter  Zenger,  in  1745.  In  October, 
1764,  New  York  appointed  the  first  Committee  of  Correspondence,  which  was 
also  the  first  step  towards  resistance  and  union,  six  years  before  Massachusetts, 
and  nine  years  before  Virgina  imitated  her  example.  When  an  attempt  was  made 
to  put  the  Stamp  Act  in  force,  in  1765,  the  merchants  of  New  York  organized  the 
non-importation  agreement,  and  executed  it  faithfully.  There  was  a  tea-party 
here  as  well  as  in  Boston  ;  but  what  was  done  there  by  a  small  body  of  men  by 
night  and  under  the  disguise  of  Mohawks,  was  done  here  in  broad  daylight  by  the 
citizens  in  mass-meeting  and  without  concealment.  And  when  hostilities  had 
commenced,  New  York  overturned  the  King's  authority  in  the  city,  and  estab- 
lished a  governing  Committee  of  One  Hundred,  April  24th,  1775,  long  before  such 
action  was  taken  by  any  other  colony  or  community  in  America.  During  that 
critical  night,  on  which  Washington  withdrew  his  army  silently  across  the  East 
River,  after  the  defeat  on  Brooklyn  Heights,  not  a  single  spy  was  able  to  carry 
tidings  of  what  was  going  on  to  the  British  on  Long  Island.  The  secret  was 
kept  by  New  York,  and  the  patriot  army  was  saved. 

On  the  spot  where  we  now  stand  the  first  repulse  of  the  war  was  sustained  by  the 
British  arms.  As  we  have  just  heard,  the  insulting  bugle  blast,  the  fox  hunter's 
"gone  away,"  given  by  the  bugles  of  the  enemy  from  the  upper  slope  of  this  hill, 
as  the  dashing  light  infantry  drove  in  our  pickets,  stung  with  shame  the  veteran 
officers,  some  of  whom  had  seen  service  in  the  French  war  of  1756.  The  Com- 
mander-in-Chief seized  the  favorable  moment  to  turn  the  retreat  into  success,  and 
by  a  well-concerted  move,  to  raise  the  morale  of  our  troops  disheartened  by  the 
precipitate  flight  of  the  preceding  day.  A  rally  of  our  men  took  place — of  men 
from  every  colony — and  the  result  was  the  repulse  of  the  British,  which  we  com- 
memorate now.  The  American  arms  had  never  before  been  successful :  for  Bunker 
Hill  was  a  defeat — so  was  the  battle  of  Long  Island.  Here  was  their  first 
success. 

Although  the  battle  of  Harlem  Plains  has  been  called  only  a  skirmish,  its  im- 
portance in  a  military  sense  was  great.  Had  the  British  advance  not  been  thus 
checked,  the  army  of  Independence  would  have  been  enveloped  by  superior 
numbers,  Fort  Washington  and  our  incomplete  defences  captured,  and  our  entire 
army  destroyed.  The  British  plans  were  very  simple.  They  desired  to  cut  off  the 
New  England  from  the  other  colonies,  by  seizing  the  passes  of  the  Hudson,  and  to 
occupy  Albany  by  an  invasion  from  Canada.  The  success  of  the  British  campaign 
depended,  therefore,  upon  the  destruction  of  the  army  of  Washington.  By  its 
grim  and  slow  withdrawal  into  the  Jerseys,  time  was  gained  to  fortify  the  High- 
lands, and  that  severing  of  the  colonies,  which  was  aimed  at,  was  finally  made 
impossible  by  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga  in  the  next  year. 

All  this  resulted  from  the  cheering  inspiration  and  hope  which  the  joy  of  success 
gave  to  our  forces  at  the  battle  of  Harlem  Plains.  Wet,  sick,  disheartened  by 
the  retreat  from  Long  Island,  and  by  the  rout  at  Kip's  Bay,  they  learned  here 
that  British  regulars  were  not  invincible. 


Battle  of  Harlem  Plains.  93 

I  advocate  most  heartily,  therefore,  the  adoption  of  the  resolution  of  thanks  to 
the  orator,  who  has  commemorated  so  worthily  this  eventful  day. 

The  question  was  put  by  the  President,  and  the  resolution  un- 
animously adopted. 

Mr.  John  Austin  Stevens,  on  behalf  of  the  Committee  on  the 
Celebration,  offered  the  following  resolutions,  which  were  unani- 
mously adopted  : — 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  be  and  are  hereby  tendered  to  His 
Excellency  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  and  His  Honor  the  Mayor 
of  New  York,  for  the  signal  honor  they  have  done  us  this  day  by  their  presence 
on  the  battle-field  where  the  sons  of  the  sister  colonies  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  those  of  New  York  a  century  ago. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  be  and  are  hereby  tendered  to  the 
Reverend  Clergy  for  their  cordial  and  grateful  presence  on  this  occasion. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  be  and  are  hereby  tendered  to  the 
distinguished  assemblage  who  have  so  cordially  responded  to  its  invitation,  and  are 
gathered  here  to  unite  with  it  in  its  commemoration  of  a  day  eventful  in  New  York 
annals  and  glorious  in  the  history  of  the  struggle  for  Independence. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  and  of  this  meeting  be  and  are  hereby 
tendered  to  the  officers  and  gentlemen  of  the  Seventh  Regiment,  New  York  State 
Militia,  for  their  generous  and  patriotic  response  to  the  invitation  of  the  Society 
to  be  present  on  this  occasion,  adding  to  its  interest  in  a  manner  so  conspicuous 
and  so  appropriate. 

Resolved,  That  the  Society  cheerfully  acknowledge  their  obligations  to  the 
owners  of  the  ground  upon  which  this  celebration  is  held,  Messrs.  Drexel  and 
Olmstead,  for  its  free  use,  and  to  Mr.  Henry  Tone,  the  present  owner  of  the  old 
De  Peyster  House,  for  the  obliging  manner  in  which  he  has  placed  it  at  the  dispo- 
sition of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements. 

Rev.  William  Adams,  D.D.,  pronounced  a  benediction — 

God  save  and  bless  our  country  ;  enabling  us,  like  our  fathers,  to  "withstand 
in  the  evil  day,  and  having  done  all  to  stand. "  The  blessing  of  Almightly  God, 
the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  be  with  you  all,  now  and  for  ever. 
Amen. 


The  Society  then  adjourned. 


ANDREW  WARNER, 

Recording  Secretary. 


94  Commemoration  of  the 


NEWSPAPER   NOTICES  OF  THE  CELEBRATION. 


From  the  New  York  Times  of  Sunday,  September  17,  1870. 

"  Another  of  the  one  hundred  years  old  exploits  of  the  Revolutionary  War  was 
commemorated  yesterday  on  the  high  grounds  of  Harlem,  lying  between  One 
Hundred  and  Tenth  and  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fifth  streets  and  Ninth  and 
Tenth  Avenues.  The  event  was  historic,  and  was  celebrated  upon  historic  ground. 
The  battle  of  Harlem  Plains,  as  a  battle,  was  on  a  comparatively  small  scale,  but 
its  value  was  positive  and  emphatic.  It  brought  no  actual  disaster  to  the  British 
arms — it  resulted  in  a  little  more  than  a  check  to  their  pretensions — but  it  gave 
new  ardor  and  confidence  to  the  American  troops,  and  removed  the  depression 
which  since  the  battle  of  Long  Island  had  brooded  over  the  army.  The  story  of 
the  conflict  was  told  by  the  orator  of  the  day,  and,  therefore,  it  needs  no  recapi- 
tulation here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  trained  veterans  of  Britain  assailed  the 
American  position,  were  driven  back  by  the  raw  levies  of  Washington,  and  re- 
treated from  the  field.  But  out  of  the  slight  conflict  came  a  bolder  bearing,  an 
intrepidity  of  purpose,  to  the  revolutionary  soldiers.  They  had  fought  and  con- 
quered, and  might  not  the  victory  be  multiplied?  The  day  on  which  the  battle 
was  fought  was  the  birthday  of  an  ardor  and  energy  which  culminated  in  the 
loftiest  triumph,  and  accordingly  it  was  deemed  worthy  of  commemoration.  The 
Historical  Society  took  the  matter  in  hand,  and  drew  the  bright  record  of  the  time 
from  the  archives  of  the  dead  century.  Success  crowned  their  undertaking.  The 
demonstration  was  unique,  simple,  and  patriotic.  Some  of  the  best  names  in  the 
country  lent  to  it  their  prestige  ;  the  people  came  to  the  celebration  to  the  number 
of  nearly  five  thousand  ;  the  military  were  represented  by  the  Seventh  Regiment  ; 
Rev.  Drs.  Storrs,  Adams,  and  Dix  were  among  the  representatives  of  the  clergy, 
and  in  all  respects  the  conflict  of  a  century  ago  was  loyally  commemorated.  That 
a  Marathon  should  fire  the  patriotism  of  one  who  stood  upon  the  classic  ground, 
or  an  Iona  make  his  piety  burn  with  a  brighter  ray,  was  the  text  of  the  hour,  and 
it  was  well  borne  in  mind  by  the  assemblage.  They  stood,  after  all,  on  classic 
ground  themselves,  and  they  needed  no  better  reminder  of  their  loyalty.  Beneath 
their  eye  lay  '  a  country  well  worth  fighting  for '  indeed.  To  the  south  was  the 
great  emporium  of  the  country's  commerce  and  industry  ;  its  freighted  argosies 
went  by  within  their  view  on  the  waters  of  the  East  River  and  Long  Island  Sound  ; 
the  ground  sloped  away  to  the  distant  High  Bridge  on  the  north,  and  a  little  to 


Battle  of  Harlem  Plains.  95 

the  left  they  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  noble  Hudson  and  the  Palisades  through  two 
dark-green  clumps  of  woodland.  All  around  was  something  to  suggest  historic 
memories.  The  yellow  gable  of  the  old  De  Peyster  House,  near  which  the  battle 
of  one  hundred  years  ago  was  fought,  was  hard  by,  and  on  the  broken  ground  in 
the  valley  stood  the  stone  fence  behind  which  the  British  had  made  their  most 
desperate  stand.     It  was  the  spot  where  the  battle  was  most  hotly  waged. 

"  The  ceremonial  of  the  day  took  place  on  the  slope  of  the  hill  overlooking  the 
Harlem  Plains.  A  handsome  stand  had  been  erected  for  the  members  of  the  Soci- 
ety and  their  invited  guests,  and  close  by  was  another  stand  for  the  Band  of  the 
Seventh  Regiment.  Both  were  handsomely  draped  with  red  cloth,  and  above 
them  waved  the  American  ensign.  Flags  displaying  the  city  arms  were  also  flung 
to  the  winds.  The  slopes  of  the  hill  were  clotted  with  tents,  above  all  of  which 
waved  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  The  ground  was  partially  enclosed,  roe  fence  around 
being  draped  in  red,  white,  and  blue,  and  having  flags  displayed  at  short  intervals. 
It  had  been  decided  to  begin  the  ceremonies  at  2.30  o'clock,  but  matters  were  not 
quite  in  train  at  that  time.  It  was  nearly  an  hour  later  when  the  members  of  the 
Historical  Society  and  their  guests  arrived  from  the  city  in  carriages,  and  about 
the  same  time  the  sounds  of  a  military  band  were  heard,  and  the  Seventh  Regi- 
ment came  marching  up  One  Hundred  and  Tenth  street,  not  far  from  the  spot 
where,  a  century  before,  the  British  troops  had  passed.  The  regiment  looked 
splendidly  as  it  moved  along.  There  was  just  a  flash  of  sunlight  needed  to  glint 
back  from  their  bayonets,  for  the  day  was  dull  and  sombre,  but  for  all  that  the 
pageant  was  excellent.  The  regiment  drew  up  on  the  northern  slope  of  the  hill, 
and  the  bandsmen  in  their  gay  uniforms  took  their  place  on  their  stand.  The 
crowd  was  now  compact  and  attentive.  Ladies  were  present  in  large  numbers, 
and  most  of  them  were  provided  with  seats.  Police  were  in  attendance  from  the 
Twenty-second,  Thirtieth,  Thirty-first,  Thirty-second,  and  Thirty-fifth  Precincts, 
under  command  of  Inspector  Speight,  but  where  there  was  so  much  disposition 
toward  order  there  was  but  small  need  for  their  service.  On  the  outer  edge  of 
the  inclosure  space  was  provided  for  a  band  of  boys  and  girls  from  a  neighboring 
institution,  each  one  of  whom  carried  a  miniature  American  flag.  Various  trifles 
indicating  the  patriotism  of  the  people  were  to  be  seen.  Among  others  was  a  medal 
commemorative  of  the  occasion,  which  was  largely  circulated.  It  bore  on  one 
side  the  inscription,  '  The  Centennial  year  of  our  national  independence.'  Be- 
neath this  was  a  portrait  of  Washington  and  the  date  '  1876.'  On  the  revers 
side  was  inscribed,  '  Battle  of  Harlem  Plains,  September,  1776.'  Among  those 
taking  part  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  day  or  approving  of  it  by  their  presence  were : 
Gov.  Henry  Lippitt,  of  Rhode  Island,  and  staff,  including  Col.  Charles  Warren 
Lippitt,  Chief  of  Personal  Staff;  Col.  Edward  Eames;  Col.  Theodore  M.  Cook  ; 
Gen.  Heber  Le favour,  Adjutant-General  of  the  State  of  Rhode  Island;  Col.  J. 
C.  Knight,  Paymaster-General;  Hon.  John  Jay;  Frederic  De  Peyster,  President 
of  the  Historical  Society  ;  James  W.  Beekman,  Vice-President ;  Rev.  Dr.  Rich- 
ard S.  Storrs,  of  Brooklyn  ;  Rev.  Dr.  Adams,  Rev.  Dr.  Morgan  Dix,  E.  F.  De- 
lancey,  John  Austin  Stevens,  C.  H.  Ward,  Mayor  Wickham,  ex-Commissioner 
Van  Nort,  George  H.  Moore,  Fordham  Morris,  Col.  Warner,  Charles  O'Conor, 
Judge  Larremore,  Gen.  Kilburne  Knox,  Major  Gardner,  United  States  Army ; 
George   W.    McLean,    Major  of  the  Old  Guard  ;    County  Auditor   Earle,  Col. 


g6  Commemoration  of  the 

Clarke  and  Lieut.  Col.  Fitzgerald,  of  the  Seventh  Regiment,  and  Hosea  B.  Per- 
kins. The  orator  of  the  day  was  Hon.  John  Tay,  who  in  eloquent  terms  told  the 
story  of  the  American  triumph  on  Harlem  Plains,  and  inculcated  the  virtue  of 
patriotism  ;  while  a  few  words,  magnetic,  however,  in  their  effect,  were  addressed 
to  the  assemblage  by  Rev.  Dr.  Storrs,  of  Brooklyn. 


From  the  Evening  Telegram  of  Septe?nber  16,  1876. 

"This  afternoon  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Harlem 
Plains  was  celebrated  on  the  very  ground  where  the  action  took  place.  On 
Thursday  afternoon  the  Telegram  gave  a  resume-  of  the  leading  features  in  that 
brilliant  engagement,  and  therefore  no  necessity  exists  for  our  now  referring  to 
them  save  in  a  general  way.  The  locality  where  the  battle  was  fought  lies  be- 
tween 110th  and  125th  streets,  and  between  Ninth  and  Tenth  avenues,  and  is  one 
of  the  very  few  places  which  is  both  near  the  heart  of  New  York  City  and  cele- 
brated in  the  history  of  the  American  Revolution.  For  the  celebration  of  this 
event  the  day  did  not  dawn  as  auspiciously  as  could  have  been  desired.  The 
sunshine  ;  lternated  too  frequently  with  shadow,  and  a  rainstorm  seemed  imminent. 
The  arrangements,  however,  were  made  with  sense  and  taste,  and  carried  out  in  a 
spirit  of  good  discipline.  The  plateau  upon  which  the  exercises  were  held  is 
nearly  five  hundred  feet  long,  and  lies  between  Riverside  Park  and  Harlem  Lane. 
Here  a  platform  and  music  stand  were  erected,  and  tents  were  pitched  for  the 
accommodation  of  guests.  The  whole  place  was  alive  with  flags  and  gay  with 
bunting.  An  immense  concourse  of  people  were  present.  These  came  in  car- 
riages, on  foot,  by  the  Second,  Third,  and  Eighth  avenue  cars,  and  by  the 
Elevated  and  the  Harlem  railroads.  At  the  intersection  of  118th  street  and 
Tenth  avenue  a  carriage-way  and  a  station  for  teams.  Opposite  this  carriage-way 
the  Seventh  Regiment  took  its  stand.  The  platform  was  occupied  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  New  York  Historical  Society  (among  whom  are  to  be  found  some  of 
the  most  cultured  gentlemen  of  New  York),  Mayor  Wickham,  various  city 
authorities,  and  a  number  of  invited  guests,  and  the  orator  of  the  day,  the  Hon. 
John  Jay.  This  gentleman  is  the  grandson  of  John  Jay,  the  first  Chief- Justice  of 
the  United  States.  He  is  now  in  the  prime  of  his  physical  and  mental  powers, 
and  by  descent,  by  wise  scholarship,  by  reverence  for  historical  traditions,  and  by 
a  rare  gift  of  eloquence,  he  is  peculiarly  fitted  for  the  grateful  task  which  devolved 
upon  him.  These  qualifications  were  recognized  by  the  vast  assembly,  for  when 
Mr.  Jay  came  forward  he  was  received  with  loud  and  long  reverberating 
applause.  After  a  brief  but  felicitous  preface,  he  defined  the  real  importance  of 
the  battle  or  skirmish  known  as  that  of  Harlem  Plains.  He  touched  upon  the 
defeat  which  the  Americans  had  experienced  in  Brooklyn  on  August  27th,  on  the 
subsequent  evacuation  of  New  York,  and  on  the  final  landing  of  Howe  near  Kip's 
Bay,  three  miles  from  the  city.  He  gave  a  magnificent  view  of  the  gallant  con- 
duct of  Washington,  who,  reduced  to  desperation  by  what  he  thought  the  coward- 
ly conduct  of  his  troops,  perilled  his  life  by  rushing  madly  into  action.  Pie  de- 
scribed how,  on  September  16,  1776,  exactly  a  hundred  years  ago,  the  advanced 
guard    of   the    American   line   had   been  driven  in  by  a  superior   English   force. 


Battle  of  Harlem  Plains.  97 

Washington  determined  to  attack  in  front,  as  a  feint  to  draw  the  enemy  down, 
while  Col.  Knowlton,  gaining  the  high  rocks  on  the  Hudson  River  side,  would 
attack  in  the  rear.  Finally,  the  orator,  in  a  burst  of  impassioned  rhetoric, 
related  how  the  English  were  driven  from  their  successive  positions,  and  took 
shelter  behind  a  fence  about  two  hundred  yards  distant,  where  they  were  rein- 
forced by  a  body  of  Hessians.  Mr.  Jay  drew  several  brilliant  and  thrilling 
pictures  complimentary  to  the  patriotic  fidelity  of  the  American  forces.  While 
doing  this,  however,  he  carefully  avoided  bombast  and  spread-eagleism.  His 
speech  was  a  fitting  embodiment  of  the  centennial  spirit,  devoid  of  everything 
like  turgidity  and  ranting.  The  whole  affair  was  one  of  the  most  thrilling  and 
picturesque  of  the  many  commemorations  this  season  has  drawn  forth.  The 
music,  the  speech,  the  applause,  the  flowers,  the  green  sward,  the  rjpe  foliage,  the 
waving  handkerchiefs,  the  equipages,  the  superb  toilets,  the  gay  military  trap- 
pings, and  the  beautiful  national  flags  waving  over  all,  made  up  a  scene  not  soon 
to  be  forgotten." 


From  the  New  York  Herald  of  September  17,  1876. 

"Yesterday,  at  one  o'clock,  there  was  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of  Recep- 
tion of  the  Historical  Society  of  the  State  of  New  York,  at  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Hotel.  The  guests  received  were  Governor  Henry  Lippitt,  of  Rhode  Island  ; 
Colonel  Charles  Warren  Lippitt,  chief  of  the  personal  staff;  Colonel  Edward 
Eames,  Colonel  Theodore  M.  Cook,  General  Heber  Lefavour,  Adjutant-General 
of  the  State,  and  Colonel  Jabers  C.  Knight,  Paymaster-General.  The  reunion, 
it  is  hardly  necessary  to  state,  was  for  the  purpose  of  arranging  the  proceedings  to 
take  place  later  in  the  day,  on  the  site  of  the  battle  of  Harlem  Plains,  on  which 
historic  spot  Hon.  John  Jay  was  to  deliver  an  oration. 

"On  arriving  at  the  place  of  celebration,  a  scene  of  unrivalled  beauty  was 
unfolded.  Upon  a  large  plateau  upon  the  edge  of  a  bluff  extending  from  115th  to 
125th  street,  were  erected  two  large  covered  platforms,  festooned  in  an  elaborate 
manner  with  American  flags  ;  tents  were  pitched  upon  the  ground,  from  which 
floated  the  national  colors ;  the  fences  and  trees  were  likewise  decorated,  and 
from  every  point — not  excepting  the  Bloomingdale  Lunatic  Asylum — there  seemed 
to  be  a  spontaneous  display  of  red,  white,  and  blue.  In  front  stretched  the  low- 
lands, now  teeming  rich  with  the  autumnal  vegetation  ;  to  the  left,  the  low  brick 
houses  of  Harlem,  seeming  almost  a  phototype  of  that  ancient  city  in  Holland 
from  which  it  takes  its  name.  Far  in  the  distance  the  sparkling  waters  of  Long 
Island  Sound  laved  the  dim  shores  ;  and,  city- ward,  the  spires  of  the  churches 
pierced  the  dull  September  sky  like  lances.  The  only  glittering  object,  however, 
shining  through  the  ether  was  the  great  Cathedral  in  distant  Fifth  avenue,  whose 
marble  fretwork  seemed  to  be  mirrored  against  the  heavens  and  reflect  its  glory 
on  the  landscape.  In  gazing  westward  the  winding  Hudson  was  seen  washing  the 
feet  of  the  Palisades,  and,  way  beyond,  steamers  were  plying  from  shore  to  shore 
as  peacefully  as  if  never  battles  had  been  lost  or  won. 

"About  three  o'clock  the  Historical  Society  arrived  upon  the  ground  and  took 
possession  of  the  main  stand.  They  were  accompanied  by  the  following  gentle- 
men :   Governor  Lippitt   and  staff,  Mayor  W.    H.   Wickham,  Charles  O'Conor, 


98         Commemoration  of  the  Battle  of  Harlem  Plains. 

Judge  Larremore,  ex-Mayor  Tiemann,  Major  Gardner,  United  States  Army ; 
Rev.  Dr.  Morgan  Dix,  General  Kilbourne  Knox,  Senator  Beekman,  Colonel 
Warner,  Major  George  W.  McLean,  of  the  "Old  Guard;"  Rev.  Dr.  Richard 
S.  Storrs,  Rev.  Dr.  Adams,  ex-Commissioner  Van  Nort,  County  Auditor  Earle, 
James  Russell  Lowell,  Benjamin  H.  Field,  Hosea  B.  Perkins,  Fordham  Morris, 
Henry  A.  Oakley,  G.  H.  Moore,  and  F.  de  Peyster." 


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